‘Tow’ Trailer: Oscar Nominee Rose Byrne Goes Blonde for Heart-Tugging, Fact-Based Dramedy

Directed by Stephanie Laing, the true story of a woman living in her Toyota Camry will be Byrne's next release after her recent Oscar nomination.

From “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” to “Philadelphia” to “Erin Brockovich” to “Thelma,” American cinema has officially codified the bureaucratic nightmare as a subgenre unto itself.

Starring recent Oscar nominee Rose Byrne, “Tow” was favorite out of last year’s Tribeca Film Festival that dives straight into the abyss of local U.S. government and draws back a painful and hilarious retelling of the true story of Amanda Ogle (Byrne).

Directed by Stephanie Laing (“Your Friends and Neighbors”), the upcoming film follows an impoverished Seattle woman who one days discovers that the 1991 Toyota Camry — where she’s been living and is thus the center of her life — just got towed. What follows is not a quick montage of temporary setbacks, but a grinding legal odyssey through an all-too-familiar hell determined to make the already-struggling Amanda pay for someone else’s mistake.

Leaning into Byrne’s knack for playing women whose composure clashes with circumstance, “Tow” sees the Best Actress honoree coming off her ferocious and raw turn in A24’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.” The performance has her currently nominated for Best Actress at the 2026 Oscars. Here, Byrne once again embodies a woman pushed to the brink, although “Tow” promises kinder, quirkier comedy.

Community proved crucial in the real Ogle’s fight against the city. In the “Tow” trailer, Amanda builds a support network of people who know the system’s indifference personally. Dominic Sessa appears as her 24-year-old attorney, Kevin Eggers — while Ariana DeBose, Demi Lovato, and Octavia Spencer play women Amanda meets at a local shelter. Simon Rex, Elsie Fisher, and more round out the cast.

Premiering to generally warm but still mixed reception out of Tribeca last summer, “Tow” got a “B-” review from IndieWire’s Christian Zilko, who wrote that, despite some narrative shortcomings, the script from Jonathan Keasey and Brant Boivin was intensely relatable. “It’s hard to dispute that the film has good intentions,” he wrote. “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.”

From Roadside Attractions and Vertical, “Tow” is in theaters on Friday, March 20. Watch the film’s first trailer below.