“Is this what a midlife crisis is?” a teenage girl asks her father in a new trailer for Hannah Marks’ “Don’t Make Me Go.” Wally (Mia Isaac, “Not Okay”) is struggling to make sense of her single dad’s intense behavior, but Max (John Cho, “Searching”) isn’t having a mid-life crisis: he’s been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and he’s trying to give her all of the love and support he won’t be able to when he’s gone. A new trailer for the Tribeca pic sees Max convincing Wally to join him on a road trip by promising that he’ll teach her how to drive along the way. He’s also got some life lessons to impart. “You have a fire inside you, Wally. Life is going to pull some moves to try to put it out. Trust yourself,” he insists.
“I’m a sucker for a movie that encapsulates many genres — comedy, drama, adventure, and heart. I hadn’t seen many father-daughter stories represented on screen before, and it felt like an opportunity to make something different and special,” Marks told us.
Marks made her feature directorial debut with 2018’s “After Everything” and followed it up with 2021’s “Mark, Mary & Some Other People.” She’s currently filming “Turtles All the Way Down,” the story of a teen investigating a mystery involving a fugitive billionaire. She’s directing the John Green adaptation and acting in it. Her other on-screen credits include “I Used to Go Here,” “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency,” and “You’re the Worst.”
“Don’t Make Me Go” premieres at Tribeca Film Festival June 13 and arrives on Prime Video July 15. Vera Herbert (“This Is Us”) penned the script.