Review: Driveways – “Touching story of an unlikely friendship”

Driveways (2019) is a drama, written by Hannh Bos, and Paul Thureen, and directed by Andrew Ahn.

Cody (Lucas Jaye), and Kathy (Hong Chau) are new to town. Kathy’s sister April has recently passed away, and has left her house to Kathy. Kathy plans to clean up the house and flip it for money. However, in life, April was something of a hoarder, so the house is in no condition to be put on the market. Kathy and Cody arrive, sleeping bags in tow, and take up residence on the floor for the duration of the process.

While in town, Cody and Kathy begin to meet and interact with some of the neighbors. The most important of whom is Del (Brian Dennehy), an elderly Korean war veteran who was April’s next door neighbor.

Cody is a bit of an introvert, and his intelligence is above average for his age. As such, he is hesitant to interact with the other “normal” kids in the neighborhood, preferring to keep to himself, and to stick around the house helping Kathy with the clean-out. Over time, Cody becomes curious and eventually chats up Del.

Del, who spends his days playing bingo at the VFW hall, or kickin’ it on his porch, is also lonely. His wife passed away recently, and his children live in another state. So Del spends the majority of his time alone in his house. Cody and Del are both plagued by loneliness, and each finds a kindred spirit in the other.

Kathy is working through her own personal issues as well. The death of her sister, being a mother to Cody, and not really fitting in in American suburbia are all things that weigh heavily on her conscience. At first, she is completely committed to cleaning the house, selling it fast, and getting out of town as quickly as possible.

However, as the fruits of her labors become more evident, and thus, more rewarding, she begins to feel a sense of pride, and ownership over the house. Add to this the positive effect of Cody’s relationship with Del, and Kathy begins to entertain the possibility that she might not want to sell the house at all. That maybe it would be best for the two of them to stay in what would now be the family home, and establish some roots.

There is still much road ahead for Kathy, Cody, and Del however, and when things seem at their brightest, the three of them discover that there still may be some storm clouds on the horizon.

When I fired the film up, I noticed that it had a relatively short runtime of about an hour and twenty minutes. This struck me as slightly odd, for dramas, especially the heavier ones, tend to run a little longer than that. An hour and a half is usually just the right amount of time for a film that is slightly more mindless than a family drama tends to be. Your standard comedies, action flicks, and horror films are the kind that can execute their stories in a satisfactory manner with this kind of time frame.

Dramas on the other hand tend to be a slower burn. They need to focus more on the little things, and nuance. They need a little more room to breathe in order to fully bring its audience, sobbing, to its knees. So I was sightly apprehensive about how powerful a film Driveways could be, given that it wasn’t going to take the entire afternoon to consume it.

As the film unfolded, I was uncertain about how I felt. Here was no reason for me to dislike it, and yet, it seemed to be spinning its wheels slightly. Things were happening, but I wasn’t sure that the film was really going anywhere. I checked my watch and discovered that there was a little more than half of the film left, and that if things didn’t start cooking soon, there wasn’t going to be much time left for anything to develop.

But sticking with the film, I found my opinion of things shifting. I started to appreciate the pacing and the realism of it. I started to become impressed with how the film never required some major catastrophe to justify itself. After coming off of a film like Our Friend (Gabriela Cowperthwaite, 2019), watching a film that focuses on sadness and loneliness that doesn’t have a major disaster that is as central to the story, was a refreshing contrast.

This isn’t to say that great loss and emotional trauma are absent in Driveways. But the way in which the film uses events of the past to influence the sorrow of the present pays plenty of dividends in the heart, while avoiding the flash of the various emotional traumas happening during the course of the film. Allowing the audience to avoid the sting of watching the tragedies that inform the lives of our characters unfold, promotes greater consideration of the resultant feelings and emotions that our characters endure while we spend time with them.

At first I felt the film was meandering, however, it really won me over by the end. Having had, or having been close to someone who had gone through some of the less-than-ideal scenarios presented in the film struck a bit of a personal chord. It made me feel connected to the characters, and thus the drama, making sure the entire affair was successful.

The inclusion of Brian Dennehy was a quality choice. He brought a quiet intensity to the role of Del. At first, his connection to the story isn’t obvious. He spends a few scenes, on his own, with little to no dialogue. However, as things progress. He begins to open up, and his relationship with Cody is very sweet, and it blossoms very naturally. Throughout his career, Dennehy had always been a rock. Sadly, he became one of the many unfortunate casualties of 2020. I am thankful that this, one of his last performances, is as wonderful as it is. The guy had the goods until the very end.

While it was largely a low-key affair, Driveways was moving and thought provoking, and I ended up quote pleased with its pacing and tone. In a way it was almost like Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood, 2008) in Bizarro World. Like some kind of soft reboot of Gran Torino, only this time with no car, no guns, no racism, and this time, ol’ Grandpa Torino is yelling at the neighborhood kids to stay on his lawn.

If you are looking for a quiet, personal, family drama that isn’t trying to make any kind of political statement, Driveways is well worth your time. It is an interesting take on the changing face of American suburbia, and a touching story of an unlikely friendship.