User reviews

The hook was Cho, the anchor was the immediate full frontal male nudity in the cold open. And it only got better from there.

It would be hard to pinpoint a scene in this drama that doesn't confirm that the two leads truly feel like Father and Daughter. And because of that, plus the rest of the script, the last act is truly emotional.

John Cho plays Mia Isaac's single father and unbeknownst to her, he's dying of a tumor. Yes, it *is* a tumah. This dad has the entire weight of the world on his shoulders from both that secret, and a TON of other stuff. (You will see it in Cho's fantastic acting.) So, he feels it's finally time for a road trip so she can meet her mom who left her very young.

This movie feels very real, all actors give their best, the movie looks great and it certainly gets progressively better through to the end. It's also a tad funny, but not unrealistically funny - every day humor we all experience.

I wouldn't call it perfect as most chaotic misadventures the daughter gets the duo into is almost resolved as fast as its introduced and it could be a melodrama at times. But what really saved the movie was that climax. There were signs leading up to it and yet, I still didn't see it coming.

Highly recommended. I would say even more so for people with children, single parents or not.

***

Final Thoughts: Not afraid to admit, that closing REALLY got to me emotionally. And I don't even have kids.

Frankly speaking, I only decided to give it a chance because Mia Isaac was in it. I have recently seen her perform in 'Not Okay' and I was thoroughly impressed, for a novice, she did incredibly well and rightfully snatched all the headlines.

Thereupon all I wanted to do is to find out whether her outstanding act in 'Not Okay' was just a fluke or was it the commencement of a promising career. And after witnessing her perform in two films one after the other; I can safely say, that she is indeed a special talent. One, who would surely flourish if given proper guidance and finer scripts and directors to work with.

Coming back to the film, it's like any other road trip movie you have previously encountered. It is fraught with fun, light-hearted moments, a great lead pair dynamic, and above all, a story that is neither too fancy nor too deep but it would reverberate with a lot of people out there. It will make them introspect, and will encourage them to self-evaluate!

I have my complaints though, regarding how this story concludes itself. Man! That ending surprised me, I did not see it coming, and I am having difficulties fathoming this. Yes, it's a bit unconventional, and has a sentimental value to it, that I understand and appreciate, yet, to me, it all felt too abrupt, too mundane for my taste.

Watching this just sad and sad keep going but end up some happy ending I assume. That's quite a real life situation that so many things are unpredicted and we can't control. The message of this drama is quite clear - Live at the moment and hold tight for your loved ones. U never know what will happen tomorrow. The acting skills of both father and daughter are quite good. For a teen actress, I can see her potential and hope more chance to see her act in the future. The planning not go to the way it suppose to make me impress about this movie, thought it would be some chicle ending but surprise at the end. Writer did a good job.

"Don't Make Me Go" stays on route most of the time, and gets to where it's going relatively quickly. John Cho is great as usual, but unfortunately, Mia Isaac can't hang, and the most notable thing about her character is that she's a horrendous driver, which is for, seemingly no reason. With a few twists and turns along the way, the movie is mostly consumable, although, not enough so to warrant watching again.

A problem with streaming is that lots of content is needed. To get that a certain formula has been developed: Teenagers, drugs or alcohol, sex, maybe some nudity, a wedding or funeral, some diversity, cars and guns. This film is almost unique among American films with no guns, but the rest is there. The film opens with a flash forward to a nude beach with plump middle-aged men and women showing their floppy tits and pubic hair. The point is that this may be a film with lots of teenage action but not really for teenagers.

In fact, this is a film about making decisions with limited information. The main characters are a Chinese American male with a 16-year-old half black daughter he is raising. We are told early that he has cancer in his brain that would require risky surgery to cure, a ballpark 20% estimate of success. Should he forego the surgery and have some quality time with his daughter? He chooses the latter, a car trip to try and find her mother. An important sidetrack is a visit to a casino where the father explains the principles of probabilistic decision making. But in this case he is missing several important pieces of information.

Unfortunately, the film is rather annoying with the daughter doubling as the narrator. But it is an original attempt at combining the formula elements in an interesting way.

I'm a father of two. A 14 year old son and a 6 year old daughter who thinks she's 26 lol. I had a brain tumor when I was 25 and had to think about how my family would make it, if I didn't survive the operation.

I cant imagine being a single parent without grand parents, or an uncle to support my children.

This movie touched me. It made me feel that I'm not alone in the feelings I have for my children. Parents want to care for their kids, even if we don't know the absolute best way how.

I think it was well written, the road trip scenes were beautiful, the message was great. I loved it. We ate all doing the best we can. Hopefully, for the greater good for our children.

First time I've ever cried watching a movie, and I don't even have children but I could still relate. Me and my girl cried like waterfalls. I really recommend this one and the acting is excellent.

TX and LA and FL don't have mountains. Man and daughter do a bonding road trip to meet mother. Chick flick from start to finish. When your childhood buddies start playing dads, you are getting old. Good movie. Sad but well done.

I would have given this a 7, maybe even an 8 factoring in the excellent acting of John Cho and Mia Isaac who plays his daughter. (Their acting gets a 10.) But near the end came a plot twist that ruined it for me. Totally out of the blue. And too far-fetched, too implausible a coincidence for the total believability the movie had very successfully established. The movie totally held my interest until then (again, thanks mostly to Cho and Isaac)... and then I didn't care about what happened.

It was as if it was one movie and then BAM! It was another. I wanted to see the original story play out. Granted, there's a throwaway line at the top of the movie that clues you in - it didn't me because I didn't give it tht much thought as I got wrapped up in the movie. In retrospect, that didn't matter and I don't think it would have changed my mind about the ending.

It was as if the movie projectionist switched to another movie 7/8 through.

For me, this is up there with "Pay It Forward" in the pantheon of disastrous movie endings.

Your mileage may indeed vary. And it's worth a watch for the excellent acting between Cho and Isaac. But the ending... it's like watching an Olympic gymnast who's gotten all 10s go SPLAT in the final event.

Ugh i was not prepared to cry the way I did for this film, it had its ups and downs and the entire time I was getting so much anxiety, but it ended with a deep meaning; to try your best even if its a small 20% chance of success!!! Overall great flick.

As "Don't Make Me Go" (2022 release; 109 min.) opens, we are in "California" and are introduced to Max Park, a single dad, and Wally, his 16 yo daughter. Max gets bad news: he is diagnosed with a fatal bone tumor. When his 20 year college reunion is coming up in New Orleans, where Wally's long absent mother will be, Max decides to take Wally on a good ol' fashioned road trip. Wally, who doesn't know about the tumor, reluctantly agrees...

Couple of comments: this is the latest film from actress-turned-director Hannah Marks ("Mark, Mary + Some Other People"), who is still not even 30 yo. Here she brings a road movie of a father struggling to connect with his 16 yo daughter, and in a race against time to right the relationship before it's too late. In and of itself, this could make for an interesting relationship drama, but alas, the script turns out to be quite weak and, worse, riddled with cliches. As a result, I failed to connect emotionally with either of the two lead characters. John Cho (as Max) and Mia Isaac (as Wally) do the best they can but it's simply not enough. Please note that the vast majority of the movie was filmed in New Zealand (Auckland, Christchurch), and indeed the exteriors are quite easy on the eye. But alas, it can't save the movie.

"Don't Make Me Go" premiered on Amazon Prime this past Friday. I had read some good things about this film, and hence was looking forward to this. Let's just say that I was quite disappointed (even though i did stick it out to the end). Of course don't take my words for it, so if you are in the mood for a rad movie featuring a father-daughter relationship 'drama', I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Teary movie that really throws a curve ball. Great road trip between daughter and father... except for the final drive...still waiting for him to see the meteor shower...and the frontal nudity...what's the big deal.?

Exploitative weepy with a weak script and direction. Acting is good. And what is it with the cringe-worthy efforts to show full frontal male nudity while trying to avoid full frontal female nudity, e.g. The scene at the nude beach with elderly couple - him fully naked, her with pants on. It seems that this is the go to exploitative scene for some female writers and directors when you have a dearth of talent on the writing and directing front.

It is a great portrayal of father and daughter connecting together on road-trip her father set off to attend a college reunion. But the real reason being that he wanted her mother to take care of her because he hasn't got much time left as he has a bone tumor in his brain which has 20% of success rate if he undergoes the surgery for it.

One of the best of its genre and a darn awesome movie. Excellent performances and wonderful story that makes us all human again. Fall in love with Wally and fall even deeper in love with John cho.

A screen gem everyone should watch at least once in their lifetime.

Some watch movies for the pleasure of escape choosing to remain on the surface and enjoy the splash of waves, sunlit breeze on their face, and easy access to the open seas of imagination; others must occasionally descend to the depths of the ocean floor like whales to see the man behind the myth and the means behind the magic. Don't Let Me Go, delivers on both accounts. It's precision film-making for those at both ends of the spectrum. It's authors understand well just how much human psychology is primed by strong emotion. Only after considerable effort might we begin to see hidden intent.

That being said, there is an unmistakable BAD BLOOD element in this story, particularly surrounding our narrator, Wally (Wallis) Park of sixteen years (who at the very beginning tells us that we are not going to like the ending of the story.) She is cute, funny, intelligent, daring, overbearing at times, but like most of us at that age in need of constant approval and acceptance. She is of mixed heritage with a father (John Cho) who absolutely adores her. Nevertheless when you tally up all of her interactions in the film with the exception of her father, however amicable they turn out, they all come down on the side of rejection in some shape, way, or form: for example, the white males she pursues don't necessarily shun her outright but either string her along or declare for someone else; Terms like 'crack-addict' come up in reference to her mother, who ultimately knows nothing of marital fidelity and is still struggling according to her own words; the only black male she comes across is in an openly gay relationship. And this isn't even the worst of it. There are so many more. Yet all of these illustrations enumerate classic anti-blackness of a sort, if only thinly veiled. By the end of the film, certain conclusions will give way to the belief that nature supersedes nurture -getting back to that bad blood aspect I mentioned earlier.

My only question at this point is to whom might this film be marketed? Adolescent black females of mixed heritage? Maybe, though I doubt it. Chances are even if they watch, most will remain on the surface. It is more likely to the young adult population of Asian males who despite their excellent financial status and good job prospects encounter serious obstacles to marriageability -even among the females in their own ethnic group according to at least a handful of academic papers I can cite. On such occasions, a good portion of them might begin to consider black females of mixed heritage as viable alternatives. This film, like a few others, seeks to disabuse them of that notion.

Great movie until halfway through! It went woke. Why is this getting shoved down our throat with everything. You'll know what I mean when it happens. The acting is awesome if you can get past all the wokeness.

I loved this movie, and was thinking about it long after it was over. I read that someone said it was a road trip movie like many they had seen before, but this is really only true in that it is a road trip movie. The acting was fabulous, the characters were good human beings who had foibles, the relationship and chemistry between the father and daughter was incredible, and the story line was engaging with a bit of a twist at the end. It is a story about a well raised teenager and a single father who has just learned he has a fatal tumour. They have to navigate the waters of adolescent turbulence and parental watchfulness against a backdrop of going on the typical adventurous road trip that you have seen in other movies. It is fundamentally different than other movies, though, and it is poignant and nuanced. You will like most of the characters in spite of their foibles. I highly recommend it.