DRIVEWAYS: One of the Most Moving Films of the Year

The following is excerpted from an article originally published at The Porch.

It’s difficult to be a film buff right now.

I struggle to admit it, for I know that feeling is borne from privilege. With the death toll from COVID-19 continuing to climb, tens of millions of Americans unemployed, and the end nowhere in sight, it seems narrow-minded and perhaps selfish to complain about the movies. And yet, as Bob Dylan put it, the times they are a-changin’, and the film industry is not immune. As theaters are forced to stay closed, many may never re-open.

Of all the creature comforts we’re sacrificing right now, I miss the cinema the most. There is something about a darkened theater that feels sacred to me, like a church service or a wake. It is that “thin place” where reality can meet the transcendent, if only for a few hours, and a group of strangers can share something special for a while, even if it’s just a story. Perhaps it’s only the illusion of true community – I find myself regretting how few times I actually spoke to the people around me – but it’s a powerful feeling, nonetheless.

Driveways feels like a movie I would have loved to see in a theater. It is the kind of quiet, meditative film best experienced among fellow pilgrims to the cinema, rather than alone at home. The sophomore feature from Korean-American director Andrew Ahn (Spa Night), Driveways follows eight-year-old Cody (Lucas Jaye) as he helps his mother Kathy (Hong Chau) clean out the house of her recently deceased sister in an unfamiliar town. Over the course of a few weeks, he befriends an elderly neighbor named Del (Brian Dennehy, in one of his last roles), a Korean War veteran who’s also coping with grief, both past and future. While the premise may sound like a formulaic coming-of-age story about intergenerational bonding (the less fantastical version of Pixar’s Up), Ahn wisely steers clear from didacticism, inviting viewers to observe his characters and form their own interpretations about what makes them tick. The result is one of the most moving films of the year. 

Read the rest of this review over at The Porch.