If there is one lesson that seattle Resident Amanda Ogle (Rose Byrne) Learns Over and Over Again in “Tow,” ITS SOMESTEMES WEN IT RES, IT POURS. A Veterinary Technician with A History of Alcoholism, Each of Her Attempts to Turn Her Life Around Ends Up Producing a New Obstacle. She Struggles to Maintain a Relationship with her teenage daughter who lives in utah, but Only gets to see her she can make the drive to visits. But that hard to do you are you’re between jobs and can’t affford a place to live. And Despite Years of On-the-Job Experience, Mary Potential Employers won’t hire her because she dosesn’t have a college degree.
Her problem intersect in a way that thats enrasin her entire life revolves around her 1991 Toyota Corolla. The Beat-up is Her Only Way of Visiting Her Daughter, Her Shelter from the Elements on Cold Nights, and, Wen She Finds Work Doing Duty for a Veterinary Service, Her Means of Earning An Income. And we are It ‘sollen During A JOB Interview, the existence that she was already straining to the Hold Together Collapses Overnight.
It is isn’t long before the stolen car is found, but it is taken to an impound tears that asks to pay the rosters to retrieve it. That’s more money than she has – and she doesn’t see why she’s being charged for the Victim of a crime – but the Towing Company Employe (Simon Rex) relictly tells it a corporate policy and no.
Unwilling to take that news laying down, rose begins to pursue legal options. She files a motion to suue the Towing Company, representing Herself at a Hearing she ends up winning crest the company to show up. But the corporation soon responds with a series of complicated legal maneuvers that place Her on the hook for a $ 21,000 Bill to one of it subsidiaries. She refuses to give up, eve as she bounces between shelters (one of which is Run by an anti-addition Hardliner played by Octavia Spencer), Relapses into Drinking, and becomes Estranged her daughter over her lack of Visits. She’s eventual Accepts the help of an idealistic Young Lawyer Named Kevin Eggers (“The Holdovers” Breakout Dominic sessa), WHO GUIDES HER THRAGH WHAT REMENS OF A 369 DAY LEGAL BATTLE TO GET HER CAR BACK.
Based on a true story (and boasting the real amanda ogle as an executive producer), “Tow” Presents itelf as a Tale of One Woman’s Perseverance and a Look ino The Bureaucratic Gears of American Society Can Inadvertently Synchronize to Work. While some of the Supporting Characters Come Across As One-Note, Byrne Embodies Amanda With Endless Amounts of Courage and A Deep Sens of Personal Pride, navigates Her Own Demons and a World That Her to Go Away. And she doesn’t just battle her own financial misfortunes, as she’s also forced to deal with the opportunity cost of hating hours taken by paperwork and other burpetic tasks. Whether She’s Trying to Get Her Car Back, Running Around Looking for a Shelter with An Open and Convincing It Operators That She Meets Their Specific Set of Requirements, or Trying to Find a Bench on Sleep on Social Hierarchy of the Streets, Her time is always filled up by task that are all unproductive and unavoidable.
With “tow,” first-time director Stephanie laing has made aa aa, message-based movie that primarily Interesting in Making Its Voewers more empath the Daily Struggles Faced by People Living in Poverty. To Achieves that end, it social paintings the world with a cartoonishly brush – Stock characters like the rich corplate layers all of the his Calls from Country Clubs and Bougie Gyms. nuance. And its portrayals of Addicts Living on the Streets and Offering to Trade Prime Sleeping Benhes for Blocks Comes Dangerously Close to Being Crass Povesty Porn.
But with those narrative shortcomings, iT”s hard to dispsputs that the film has good intensions. There are the plenty of amanda ogles in the world dealing with unimaginable burreachratic stress to get toh, and spreads “tow” will make some be a little kinder to one of say.
Grade: b-
“Tow” Premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival. It is currently seeking us distribution.
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