8/12 ForReel Score | 3.5/5 Stars

Stephanie Laing’s Tow is the type of small scale story we’re rarely told in films that are ripped from the headlines. Usually, films about disenfranchised folks have to center around them scoring some major victory that will ripple down to others affected by the same problems. The story of Amanda Ogle (Rose Byrne) is significant in just how painfully ordinary it is.

Ogle is an unhoused woman living in her elderly Toyota Camry on the streets of Seattle. She’s doing her best to get a low level veterinary job and eventually does score one on the condition that she is able to get to and from work. This becomes problematic when her car is towed and impounded. She’s completely displaced, eventually finding a church shelter to stay in, but it is too far away from the one gig she was able to get. As the impound fees pile up, all Amanda can do is mount a small but mighty legal battle with the help of young and hungry lawyer Kevin (Dominic Sessa). Meanwhile, she does start to find some semblance of community in the shelter, which is overseen by the strict but caring Barb (Octavia Spencer).

Rose Byrne continues her streak of forceful, unglamorous performances in Tow following career best work in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. She’s a master of realizing these women who are being grinded down by their life circumstances. It is heartbreaking to watch Amanda slide deeper and deeper into depression and substance as she’s robbed of her dignity. Yet, she never loses her fortitude, and Byrne always makes sure that her resilience while pursuing this case shines through. Her work here may not be as revelatory as her Oscar nominated turn but it certainly fits well alongside it as she develops a new screen persona in a significantly less nihilistic film.

A strong rolodex of supporting talent builds out the film’s realistic world. Naturally, Octavia Spencer is the highlight. She’s played this type of “tough but fair” authority figure dozens of times but when forced to go toe to toe with Byrne, she gets to bring a bit more intensity to it. Dominic Sessa is note perfect as the green but deeply earnest lawyer who in many ways mirrors where he currently is in his acting career. Simon Rex pops in as a sympathetic but not particularly helpful worker at the towing company who does his best to comfort Amanda. Elsie Fisher has a couple of heartbreaking moments as Amanda’s somewhat estranged daughter who lives with her father. Their scenes together are entirely over the phone, but Fisher still conveys the misplaced optimism and familiar disappointment that stems from having a complicated parent. Demi Lovato is decent as one woman that Amanda befriends at the shelter but Ariana DeBose egregiously overacts as the other. Those scenes could’ve easily been some of the film’s most moving material if the casting wasn’t so lacking.

For a story about a small-scale legal battle, Tow is largely well paced. However, the mundanity of the true story does start to shine through in the underwhelming third act. While Laing’s instinct to not sensationalize Amanda’s struggle is admirable, it also fizzles out the tension once we start rounding the finish line. This is not a courtroom drama. It’s just a story about a woman who refuses to abandon one of her only material possessions. The one roof she’s able to afford to put over her head. Perhaps at the end of the day that is enough. Tow might just be a serviceable indie with a fantastic lead performance, but in a time where being unhoused is often criminalized, works like this are invaluable ways to break stigmas.

Movie Review: An Unhoused Rose Byrne Fights For Her Dignity In "Tow"