Review: 'Driveways' is a quietly moving tale of small-town life, and a career summation for Brian Dennehy

Director Andrew Ahn’s sophomore effort, “Driveways,” is the sort of small-town slice-of-life independent film that most film buffs have seen a thousand times before — the kind that rises or falls on the strength of the individual actors.

Ahn has the good fortune to have two strong lead actors here: Hong Chau and, in one of his last roles before his death last week at the age of 81, the burly character actor Brian Dennehy.

Chau (familiar to fans of HBO’s “Watchmen” series as the scheming Lady Trieu) plays Kathy, single mom to a debilitatingly shy 8-year-old, Cody (Lucas Jaye). Kathy and Cody are driving from Michigan to upstate New York to clean out a house, left behind by Kathy’s recently deceased older sister, April. Kathy’s plan is to take a few days to move April’s belongings out of the house, and prep the place to be sold.

Entering the house, though, Kathy learns something distressing: April was a hoarder, and the house is filled with trash, at least one cat carcass, and the million little possessions of a troubled woman who couldn’t let any of them go. Plowing through all this will take Kathy, and Cody, longer than she expected.

Cody meets some of the neighbor kids. Some, like manga-loving Miguel (Jeter Rivera) and his sister Anna (Sophia DiStephano), are nice. Others — like wrestling-obsessed brothers Brandon (Jack Caleb) and Reese (James DiGiacomo), who are staying with their nosy grandma, Linda (Christine Ebersole) — not so much.

Instead, Cody befriends the old man who lives alone next door. That’s Dennehy’s character, Del, a Korean War veteran who spends his days talking to buddies over bingo at the VFW hall and rattling around the house he shared with his departed wife, Vera.

Screenwriters Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, who were nominated a Film Independent Spirit Award for best first screenplay for this script, plant clues that blossom with perfect timing. There aren’t a lot of long stretches where characters tell each other — and, by extension, the audience — every little secret in their lives. They learn about each other, and we learn about them, gradually, organically. Just like life.

Ahn, whose debut “Spa Night” was a quiet revelation at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, captures those organic beats with care and precision. Ahn uses a small moment, like when Kathy sneaks out on a sleeping Cody to blow off steam at a bar, to wordlessly convey deep layers of her personality.

Chau (another Spirit Award nominee) gives a tender reading of Kathy, using terse gestures to guard against the grief and guilt she feels for the sister she barely knew. She hangs in there with Dennehy, who delivers a career summation of a performance, his gruff exterior masking a gentle heart.

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‘Driveways’

★★★1/2

Streams online, beginning Friday, April 24, on the SLFS@Home portal. Not rated, but probably R for some F-bombs. Running time: 84 minutes.