Here we have both our Managing Editor Jason Whyte along with Austin-based Antonio Quintero review I LOVE MY DAD which was an award winner at SxSW last week.
Anyone who has questioned someone that they meet online is a very normal feeling and attitude. You likely know the term “catfish” when someone dupes another into an online relationship and that makes anyone suspect of the online world. What sets I LOVE MY DAD apart is that the “catfishing” is done by a father trying to reconnect with his son. I see nothing going wrong with this, of course.
Filmmaker James Morosini, basing this off of his own personal events that actually happened, stars as Frankin who is on the outs with his dad Chuck (Patton Oswalt) after not being reliable in the past and always lying to him and being manipulative. Desperate to get his son back, he creates an online persona named “Becca”, basing off a staff member at a diner he meets of the same name (played by YouTube star Claudia Sulewski) and messaging his son on social media.
One element of the movie that I liked was the “imagined” relationship between Franklin and Chuck’s creation of Becca, where instead of seeing constant screens and texting, a visualized imagination of Becca comes on screen and there’s a visualized simulation from Franklin’s perspective of all of the texting between them as a forged relationship develops (obviously not the intent of Chuck). A lesser movie would have had more of the communication between screens, which is obviously not cinematic and could get very tired quickly. Instead, it creates a forced connection between Morosini and Sulewski, both terrific here, and is a bit easier on the eyes than Patton Oswalt, as much as I love him here too.
And let’s talk about Oswalt as well. I have always admired the man as an actor and feel like he should take on more serious roles like this. I was quickly reminded of Jason Reitman’s YOUNG ADULT where it showed his sarcastic side as well as his humanity. Here he plays a very convincing tightrope of a man who goes further down the rabbit hole as his ruse gets even more impossible to control, and also the strains it has on the father-son dynamic.
Ultimately, I LOVE MY DAD kind of has an indie streaming/cable look and feel to it and doesn’t really have a big screen type of vibe, so don’t expect this opening across the country in Canada or thousands of screens in the United States, however I DO see this finding an audience down the line (it recently won the Grand Jury award at SxSW which gives it a promising outlook). This isn’t really a knock on the movie, mind you, as this is a light hearted and entertaining look at the pains between father and son that eventually works itself out.
Antonio Quintero:
I LOVE MY DAD from director James Morosini is my SXSW surprise film. All knew going into this film that Patton Oswalt is in it and he is always funny. Morosini has created a type of Hitchcock Timebomb film; as Hitchcock said the essence of suspense is the timebomb where you see two people talking to each across a table and before their conversation you reveal to the audience that there is ticking time underneath the table. This increases the tension. The audience wants to warm the character; but they know this is going to go off at any moment and when it finally we get a release. I LOVE MY DAD is this Hitchcock trope through an entire film. You know from the beginning that the father’s plan is layout abd this plan is never going to work out. We’re just waiting for its terrible conclusion.
The audience is waiting for this bomb of awkwardness to explode.
Chuck (Patton Oswalt) a middle-aged man whose relationship with his son Franklin (James Morosini) has deteriorated, after years of lying to him and being absent from his life. Their relationship is so bad Franklin has even blocked him on social media. Chuck desperately wants to be in contact with his son, so he creates a fake account with stolen pictures from a waitress named Becca (Claudia Sulewski) that he once met. He begins to catfish his own son making him think he is a pretty girl that is interested in him. The one thing he did not count on was that his son falls in love with Becca. As the father knows everything his son is interested and creates the perfect girl for him.
It was an amazing experience seeing it with a live audience at the SxSW screening. This film is a ball of awkwardness, and it was truly amazing to hear the groans and the nervous laughter of the audience throughout the film. One thing that makes the film is that Patton Oswalt does a great job in making you feel sorry for Chuck’s plight in all of this.
I’m impressed by the very personal work of Morosini here. Coming off a career of directing short films in the past; I LOVE MY DAD is his feature debut and I’m impressed. I believe this is a director you should be looking out for in the future. One of my favorite films from the festival without a doubt.
I LOVE MY DAD is currently an acquisition title and should be released later in 2022.