Movie Review: 'Daddy Issues' Is My Favorite Movie of 2019 So Far

Daddy Issues is my favorite movie of 2019 thus far. This indie romance came out of absolutely nowhere, and absolutely floored me with its effortless artistry, and original storytelling. Director Amara Cash is an absolute revelation whose work here is that of a veteran filmmaker even as it is her first feature length film. In Daddy Issues, Cash does what truly exceptional directors do, she pays attention to every single detail. From cinematography to soundtrack to costume to her incredible cast, Cash exerts a control that many mainstream directors of multiple feature films could stand to learn from.

Daddy Issues has a plot that is difficult to distill down to simplicity, but I will give it a shot. Madison Lawlor stars in Daddy Issues as Maya, a struggling, wannabe artist who dreams of going to art school in Italy, and getting away from the terror of a blended family, and her deeply strained relationship with her mother. The relationship between Maya and her mother has been fraught since Maya’s father disappeared several years earlier, and further strained since Maya came out as gay. The two communicate mostly via arguments and ugly tones.

Maya’s main escape from her troubles, aside from her lovely artwork, is Instagram. On Insta she is obsessed by a party girl named Jasmine Jones (Montana Manning). Jasmine does an amazing job of making her life seem amazing via Instagram. Reality is a little more harsh than the loving lens of her iPhone. On Instagram she’s a dazzling influencer who runs with an LGBTQ friendly crowd, and gives off an air of a true baller.

That reality I mentioned however, finds Jasmine earning her way in the world as a pseudo-prostitute. This gets complicated. Jasmine’s main job in the world, aside from her Instagram fashion line, which she portrays as an industry, but is barely more than a dream, is working for Simon (Andrew Pifko), a drug addicted general surgeon who hires Jasmine to dress as a little girl and call him daddy. For her part, Jasmine does appear to relish the role, even beyond her $5000.00 per month salary, while Simon is at once fulfilled, and appalled with himself.

Eventually, after a particularly nasty fight with her mother, Maya leaves home and uses Instagram to track down the girl of her dreams. In a dreamy, druggy sequence, Maya finally meets Jasmine when Jasmine runs off a guy at a bar who would not leave Maya alone. Jasmine adopts the doe-eyed Maya, and they begin a tentative romance that drives the second act of Daddy Issues, a second act that is as romantic and sexy as any second act I have seen in some time.

Yes, Daddy Issues is fraught with lots of transgressive sexuality, and some audiences are going to have a hard time with the raw and frank fashion with which director Amara Cash deals with that sexuality, she holds very little back. And yet, Daddy Issues is a great deal more complex than mere transgressive sexuality. During that incredibly lovely second act we begin to fall deeply in love with these characters, especially Maya who appears to find herself as a human being for the first time.

Her journey of self discovery is utterly breathtaking as director Amara Cash captures it with a music montage that is among the best I’ve ever seen in a movie. I completely adored every moment of this musical interlude that shows the growing love affair between Maya and Jasmine, while laying the foundation for an emotionally gutting third act. The way that the joy of the second act cuts brutally to the harsh third act is so moving, and so unexpected. What begins as something of an exploration of style becomes something deeply, tragically romantic, and moving.

That exercise in style I mentioned is some pretty fantastic stuff. Director Amara Cash has an impeccable eye, and her choices make for a movie of beautifully detailed visuals. Cash uses deep focus and handheld cameras, and the choices she makes in framing and movement appear both effortless and essential. The camera work of Cinematographer Nico Aguilar is essential to Daddy Issues. The film is utterly gorgeous, frame by frame, and the glamour of particular scenes lends to the dreamy aesthetic of that amazing montage I mentioned.

The harsher tones of the third act work equally well in the film’s visual motif with the use of complex two shots and deep backgrounds to deliver essential plot information in a visual fashion. What other movies tell you, Daddy Issues shows you, and does so with an effortless artfulness. The look of Daddy Issues is as much of a breath of fresh air as is this remarkably original story being told.

Maya, Jasmine, and Simon are unlike any characters in any movie. There is nothing stock or perfunctory about them. Some may reduce Maya to a stereotype based on her perky pink hair and pixie-ish manner, but for me, Madison Lawlor made Maya wholly real and highly original. I was won over immediately by her big dreamy eyes and her sad smile, a half smile that struggles to be sustained even when she’s in the throws of passionate love.

Lawlor, via the remarkable screenplay by Alex Bloom; with story by credit for Director Amara Cash, communicates years of life, of hurt and angst with looks and manner. Her timidity, her innocence, speaks volumes, and all of it comes from Lawlor’s beautifully physical presence. She feels this performance as much, or even more than, she speaks it. This is one of my favorite performances by an actress in some time.

Montana Manning is just as good in what is arguably a more difficult role. Jasmine is the least complete character in the movie, a creature of pure id and desire who begins to crumble when faced with real hardship for the first time. She’s mostly an image of her own creation, and when Maya starts to cause her to ponder the reality of her life, her defenses begin to drive the plot in directions that I was not expecting.

Then there is Simon, and I don’t want to say much about his arc. Simon is the most off-putting and hard-to-handle character in the movie. He’s a creep, and a drug addict, and yet, by the end of the movie, his arc is genuinely moving. The way actor Andrew Pifko and director Cash round this character into form is so incredible, and so seemingly impossible. You are unlikely to identify, or even remotely sympathize with Simon, but I, at least, came to respect him in a way that I would not have believed possible when the character was introduced.

Daddy Issues is, as I said at the beginning, a revelation. I completely adore this movie. Some will find the main plot complication to be a tad convenient or convoluted, but the style and these incredible characters, the exceptional direction, made me forget any qualms I had about the plot. Daddy Issues is far too unique for me to get caught up on minor issues of convenience. This is a wildly original, romantic, tragic, and beautiful movie, compacted into an 87-minute package that never feels too fast, and left me desperately wanting more.

This is my favorite movie of 2019 thus far.