If there’s one lesson that Seattle resident Amanda Ogle (Rose Byrne) learns over and over again in “Tow,” it’s that sometimes when it rains, 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 when she can make the drive to visit. But that’s hard to do when you’re between jobs and can’t afford a place to live. And despite years of on-the-job experience, many potential employers won’t hire her because she doesn’t have a college degree.
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Her problems intersect in a way that ensures her entire life revolves around her 1991 Toyota Corolla. The beat-up car is her only way of visiting her daughter, her shelter from the elements on cold nights, and, when she finds work doing pickup duty for a veterinary service, her means of earning an income. And when it’s stolen during a job interview, the existence that she was already straining to hold together collapses overnight.
It isn’t long before the stolen car is found, but it’s taken to an impound lot that asks her to pay hundreds of dollars to retrieve it. That’s more money than she has — and she doesn’t see why she’s being charged for being the victim of a crime — but the towing company employee (Simon Rex) reluctantly tells her it’s a corporate policy and there’s nothing he can do.
Unwilling to take that news laying down, Rose begins to pursue legal options. She files a motion to sue the towing company, representing herself at a hearing she ends up winning when the company declines 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 its subsidiaries. She refuses to give up, even as she bounces between shelters (one of which is run by an anti-addiction hardliner played by Octavia Spencer), relapses into drinking, and becomes estranged from her daughter over her lack of visits. She eventually accepts the help of an idealistic young lawyer named Kevin Eggers (“The Holdovers” breakout Dominic Sessa), who guides her through what remains 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 itself as both a tale of one woman’s perseverance and a look into the ways that the bureaucratic gears of American society can inadvertently synchronize to work against one individual. While some of the supporting characters come across as one-note, Byrne embodies Amanda with endless amounts of courage and a deep sense of personal pride, even as she navigates her own demons and a world that just wants 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 having most of her waking hours taken up by paperwork and other bureaucratic tasks. Whether she’s trying to get her car back, running around looking for a shelter with an open bed and convincing its operators that she meets their specific set of requirements, or trying to find a bench to sleep on without upsetting the social hierarchy of other people who live on the streets, her time is always filled up by tasks that are both unproductive and unavoidable.
With “Tow,” first-time director Stephanie Laing has made a a simple, message-based movie that’s primarily interested in making its viewers more empathetic about the daily struggles faced by people living in poverty. To achieve that end, it sometimes paints the world with a cartoonishly simple brush — stock characters like the rich corporate lawyer who takes all of his calls from country clubs and bougie gyms while talking about his preferred safari destinations don’t win the film any points for nuance. And its portrayals of addicts living on the streets and offering to trade prime sleeping benches for blowjobs comes dangerously close to being crass poverty porn.
But even with those narrative shortcomings, it’s hard to dispute that the film has good intentions. There are plenty of Amanda Ogles in the world dealing with unimaginable bureaucratic stresses just to get through the day, and perhaps “Tow” will make someone be a little kinder to one of them.
Grade: B-
“Tow” premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
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