Johnny, Joaquin Phoenix, is a single, middle-aged radio journalist who travels the country with his producing partners to interview children and teenagers about their lives and their thoughts on the future. In Detroit, a call to his sister Viv Gaby Hoffmann reveals the ache of a family split after their mother’s dementia, a loss that still weighs on both of them. The conversation is warm, and Viv asks Johnny to come to Los Angeles to watch her nine-year-old son Jesse while she heads to Oakland to help Paul Scoot McNairy, her estranged husband who struggles with bipolar disorder, get settled there. Johnny agrees, and the two quickly forge a bond; he introduces Jesse to the rhythms of his work, teaching him how to operate the audio equipment and turning their time together into a kind of shared apprenticeship.
As Viv contemplates Paul’s worsening condition, she decides to stay in Oakland longer to push him toward accepting treatment. Johnny, who still has to work, convinces Viv to let him take Jesse back to his home in New York City, hoping to manage the workload while keeping the boy safe. The arrangement proves to be more demanding than he anticipated, and a setback arrives when Jesse disappears inside a store. Johnny’s temper flares in a moment of stress, and he snaps at the boy, a reaction he immediately tries to soften. In the moment of apology, he reveals that Viv isn’t simply visiting—she’s trying to help Paul—leading to a quiet reconciliation as they press forward. From this point, Jesse’s questions about his aunt and his own life begin to surface, and small, intimate revelations unfold: the conversations touch on the siblings’ past, their mother’s illness, and the fact that Johnny once had a long-term relationship with a woman named Louisa, a memory he still cherishes and can’t quite set aside.
Paul eventually checks into a treatment center, and he asks Viv to stay nearby until he’s settled. Johnny, buoyed by a sense of purpose, agrees to keep watching Jesse and to balance the responsibilities of the road with care for the boy. But when their producing partners push for a new assignment in New Orleans, Johnny loses track of Jesse on the street, and the weight of the moment quickly makes him confront how fragile his grasp on parenting really is. He buys Jesse a plane ticket back to Los Angeles, hoping to salvage the situation and preserve the connection he has formed with the boy. On the ride to the airport, Jesse asks to use the bathroom but instead locks himself in, insisting that he does not want to go home yet. The moment becomes a turning point that leads Johnny to take Jesse to New Orleans, where the two of them work through their tensions amid the city’s energy.
In New Orleans, their bond rekindles as Johnny keeps working and the two explore the city’s neighborhoods, sounds, and stories. Viv calls again with news that Paul is improving and doctors plan to send him home, and she intends to come for Jesse. But Jesse reacts with a mix of frustration and longing, running off at first as he processes the upheaval around him. He eventually opens up more, and Johnny helps him vent his anger—showing him how to release emotion by yelling and kicking the air when words fail. A poignant moment arrives when Jesse asks whether Johnny will become like his father—Johnny answers that he doesn’t think so, because Viv taught him to handle his feelings in healthier ways.
Viv flies to New Orleans to bring Jesse home, and life in New York slowly returns to its rhythms. Back in the city, Johnny listens to the recordings from New Orleans and hears a new message from Jesse: Johnny is probably his best friend. The realization of that close bond deepens the film’s quiet, hopeful mood. In a final note, Johnny records a message back to Jesse, recounting their time together and reaffirming a promise to remind him of the things he forgets as he grows up. The journey traces a path through care, responsibility, and love, showing how a single road trip can reveal the pain of family tensions, the difficulty of stepping back when loved ones are in need, and the healing that can come from listening, learning, and staying present for those who matter most.
