By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: James Morosini
Starring: Afrim Gjonbalaj | J.P. Edwards | Rachel Dratch | Seamus Callahan | Sheri Fairchild
Country: united_states
Year: 2022
Running time: 96
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14935966/reference/
Chris says: “If it seems outlandish that a young man’s estranged father could ‘catfish’ him as a young adult by posing as a young girl on a fake social media profile, well, it happened to actor/writer/director James Morosini and he’s made a film about it. What prevents I LOVE MY DAD from lapsing into silliness and utter absurdity isn’t the ‘based on a true story’ angle or its attempts to all-too-plausibly depict how it happened, but the genius casting of Patton Oswalt as the dad. A comedian who has also a fair amount of acting credits, Oswalt has an innate talent for both subtly underplaying and meticulously portraying well-meaning but misguided schmos whom, when in the process of digging their own graves, just keep burrowing further and further past the point of no return. Morosini is perhaps more credible as an actor than a director here, but the film’s trick ending is so slyly deployed I had to give it half an extra cat – in this case, 3.5 cats