'Tow' Review: Rose Byrne's ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’ Follow-Up Fails Its Good Intentions

Published Mar 20, 2026, 4:32 PM EDT

Nate Richard is a Resource Editor for Collider, a film and television critic, and a part-time amateur filmmaker. He graduated from Ball State University in December 2020 with a Bachelor's degree in Telecommunications. 

Nate has been with Collider since August 2021 and became a Resource Editor in March 2022. With Collider, Nate has interviewed some of the biggest names in Hollywood including Robert De Niro, Michael Fassbender, Steven Yeun, and J.K. Simmons.

Nate has also covered several film festivals, both in-person and digitally, including the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the Heartland International Film Festival (HIFF), and South by Southwest (SXSW).

He's also an avid runner and is very proud of his dogs Hazel, Rex, and Turbo. He currently resides in Indianapolis, Indiana.

What Is 'Tow' About?

For the last several years, Amanda Ogles (Byrne) has been living in her car, a 1991 Toyota Camry. She's a recovering addict living on the streets of Seattle hundreds of miles away from her teenage daughter Avery (Elsie Fisher). It's not like Amanda isn't trying to find work. She paid a lot of money to get her vet tech license renewed, but so many of her prospective employers question her lack of college education.

She finally gets a shot when a pet spa hires her, after being impressed by her vast knowledge of dogs. The one condition is that she needs her car for her job to work. Immediately after finally getting her second chance, Amanda walks out to the parking lot to find that her car has been stolen. Not only will she be unable to fulfill the needs of her new job, but she doesn't even have a roof over her head. After spending the night on a bench, Amanda finally receives some hope when a local towing company calls her, telling her they have her car. The issue is, they want to charge her $273 to retrieve it. Being the headstrong woman that she is, Amanda refuses to pay, and decides to sue the towing company to get her car back.

This ends up turning into quite a battle and after initially refusing help, Amanda finally takes residence at a Catholic shelter for women, run by Barb (Octavia Spencer). When things take a turn for the worst, Amanda enlists the help of the young non-profit lawyer Kevin (Dominic Sessa), to fight the greedy towing company.

Rose Byrne and Dominic Sessa Are an Endearing Pair in 'Tow'

Byrne is terrific as Amanda, a character that is incredibly complicated and initially isn't the easiest person to like. However, Byrne's humanity and understanding of the character makes you immediately have sympathy for her struggles. She is never depicted as a walking array of stereotypes, even in her early courtroom scenes as she represents herself, she isn't some pro, but she's not awful either. In a screenplay that is largely safe and tonally inconsistent, Byrne brings the realism to Tow that the true story requires.

Byrne shares such endearing chemistry with all of her co-stars, especially Sessa's Kevin. Sessa, who has become one of the most exciting young rising actors right now, plays his role with an awkward yet sweet charm. The scenes where Byrne and Sessa bicker with each other are easily some of the film's biggest highlights. They're never depicted as cruel, and the film shows how much Amanda and Kevin truly respect one another.

The ever-reliable Spencer also turns in good work as Barb, the devout manager of the Catholic shelter who teaches Amanda through tough love. Simon Rex appears in a supporting role as Cliff, an employee at the tow truck company, who wants to help Amanda, but can't. He brings some levity as the comic relief, even if his sub-plots of his love for his dog don't always mesh with the rest of the movie. Oscar-winner Ariana DeBose and pop-star Demi Lovato also appear in smaller roles, as Denise and Nova, two women Amanda befriends at the shelter. While the film does try to give their characters some backstory, the material both of them are given makes them come across more as after-thoughts. They really only exist in the film to display two distinct character traits; Denise is the know-it-all and Nova is the pregnant singing optimist.

'Tow' Rarely Hits the Right Emotions

Image via Roadside Attractions

You can tell that director Stephanie Laing and screenwriters Jonathan Keasey and Brant Bovin had their hearts in the right place when making Tow. Homelessness is a real issue in the United States and the government has rarely done anything truly impactful that has helped the unhoused. Stories like this put a face on an issue. Unfortunately, the script is suffering from an identity crisis. It wants to speak about corporate greed and how companies won't bat an eye screwing over the underprivileged. At the same time, its voice is never loud enough and the story shifts between being a strange dark comedy mixed with the tone of a Hallmark Channel movie.

Tow is built on so many tropes that it begins to feel repetitive. Despite only being an hour and 45 minutes, the pacing is off, as the movie will constantly move the story forward several months. It causes the emotional beats to miss the mark, and culminates in an ending that is anticlimatic, even if that was the intention. The big dramatic moments come across as shallow rather than deep, and it doesn't help that certain characters, like Denise and Nova, are depicted in a way that makes them into stereotypes rather than people. The few effective moments in Tow come from Byrne, Spencer, and Sessa, and it's because they are shown as people, not characters you'd expect from a Lifetime movie.

Tow comes with the best of intentions, but a hollow screenplay and bizarre structure let it down. It's the undeniable charisma of the cast, especially Byrne, that makes the movie enjoyable enough. Tow isn't a movie that anyone will outright hate, but it squanders so much of its potential that it fails to deliver the important message that it wants to share.

Tow is now playing in theaters.

Release Date March 20, 2026

Runtime 105 minutes

Director Stephanie Laing

Writers Annie Weisman, Brent Boivin, Jonathan Keasey

Producers Apur Parikh, Brent Stiefel, Brian O'Shea, Danyelle Foord, Derek Peterson, Ford Corbett, Justin Lothrop, Manmeet Singh, Nathan Klingher, Rohini Singh, Rose Byrne, Samantha Nisenboim, Stephanie Laing

Pros & Cons

• Rose Byrne, Dominic Sessa, and Octavia Spencer are all terrific as the beating hearts of the film.
• Byrne never once makes Amanda into a stereotype of the unhoused community.

• The screenplay fails to juggle a tone that shifts between being a biting dark comedy and a Lifetime movie.
• The emotional beats never fully land.