Jeri Jacquin
Currently in theatres and On Demand from writer/director James Morosini and Magnolia Pictures comes the story of a father doing whatever it takes to make up for mistakes with I LOVE MY DAD.
Chuck (Patton Oswalt) has managed to cause a distance between himself and son Franklin (James Morosini). Son Franklin is dealing with his own issues of depression and feeling isolated from the world. Trying to remove struggles from his life, Franklin blocks his dad on social media.
Not knowing how to stay in his son’s life, after a suggestion from a friend, Chuck creates a fake online account. Using a girl named Becca (Claudia Sulewski), Chuck begins a conversation with Franklin, and it takes no time at all before they are talking all the time.
When Franklin wants to talk on the phone, Chuck tries to enlist the help of girlfriend Erica (Rachel Dratch) but it all goes south quickly. There is no other choice when Franklin feels the need to finally meet Becca in person. Mom Diane (Amy Landecker) is not thrilled with the idea that Chuck agrees to drive his son to meet the elusive Becca.
But when Erica discovers how far it is all going, Chuck has some explaining to do!
Oswalt as Chuck is inconsistent, a bit of a storyteller, has more excuses than I’ve ever heard and still loves his son deeply. Trying to stay connected any way possible, he is shocked when discovering that he has been blocked from son Franklin’s online life. As an insecure parent, Oswalt gives us a man who just can not seem to get it right. The shovel he uses digs him such a deep hole that there is no turning back! Well done!
Morosini as Franklin is a young man who, if you think about it, is just as insecure and inconsistent as his father. Angry with him for his own reasons, instead of finding his way out of that hole, he also digs it deeper with being self-destructive. Finally seeing light at the end of a very dark hole because of Becca, it is cringing to watch father and son just dive into places that are uncomfortable and hilarious.
Sulewski gets a chance to come to life in an unusual way playing both a ‘real’ character and the one in Franklin’s imagination that is created by Chuck. Confused? It’s a fun thing to figure out though.
Shout out to Dratch as the very unusual boss/kinky girlfriend Erica and Howery as Chuck’s friend Jimmy. Both roles are funny, heartwarming and well done.
Other cast include Ricky Velez as Derek, Sarah Helbringer as Haley, Patrick Klein as the Counselor, Sheri Fairchild as Suzanne, and Lil Rel Howery as Jimmy.
Magnolia Pictures is responsible for such releases as SLAY THE DRAGON, JOHN LEWIS: Good Trouble, the crime thriller THE WHISTLERS, documentaries such as THE PIECES I AM and films such as the directorial debut of Italian filmmaker Filippo Meneghetti. For more of what they have to offer please visit www.magpictures.com.
I LOVE MY DAD is a quirky film about parents, their children, relationships, and the mess that social media has created with the reality of life. Life was easier when you met someone face to face and got to know them. That made it a tad easier to spot trouble or incompatibility. Social media means people have become experts at cat-phishing and lying about who they truly are.
The trouble here is that Oswalt’s character know exactly what he is doing wrong and continues to do it to find a way into his son’s life. Sometimes doing things out of love can make a dad do nutty things and Chuck certainly qualifies for doing the nuttiest things of all. Not sure I could do it but as a parent, who is to say?
I guess only Chuck and Franklin know the answer to it all.
In the end – parents do silly things for the love of their kid!
