Tag Archives: Amy Landecker

Movie Review ~ I Love My Dad

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The Facts:

Synopsis: A hopelessly estranged father catfishes his son in an attempt to reconnect.
Stars: Patton Oswalt, James Morosini, Rachel Dratch, Claudia Sulewski, Ricky Velez, Lil Rel Howery, Amy Landecker
Director: James Morosini
Rated: R
Running Length: 96 minutes
TMMM Score: (8/10)
Review: In my family, summer was always leading up to the road trip. Either up to our cabin or visiting family way out yonder, there was nothing but the open road to greet us and lots of activity books to keep me busy along the way. I miss those pre-technology days when you had to converse with your loved ones, and maybe that’s why I spark to films that feature one or more parents traveling with their adult children because it recaptures something we’ve lost in this modern age. Communication. Growing apart from your parents is a natural part of becoming an adult but reconnecting through maturity is another aspect of ‘adulting’ I find an interesting area to explore.

This summer, we’ve already had one emotionally resonant familial drama involving a parent and child making a cross-country trip. While Don’t Make Me Go threw some friendly chuckles our way, it wasn’t after our funny bone. While most have been downgraded through dopey slapstick and gross-out humor, I thought we’d seen the last of the dependably entertaining road trip comedies. It turns out we just needed to add a bit of father-son drama to the mix to resurrect the genre. That’s how a gem of a movie like I Love My Dad zooms in and parks itself on your must-watch list.

Writer/director/star James Morosini uses his own life as the basis for this whale of a tale that could have abused its absurdity with out-of-place humor but instead embraces it with winning compassion. A suicidal adult son alienated from his absentee father is coaxed out of his shell by an attractive girl he meets online, opening up to her and finding that he may have found his soulmate. The trouble is, the girl of his dreams is his father (the spectacular Patton Oswalt, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), under a fake profile in a last-ditch attempt to connect with his son, who has blocked all contact after a lifetime of disappointment.

The film handles the switcheroo nicely, with Claudia Sulewski as the imaginary girl blessedly standing in for conversations with Morosini, so we don’t have to read endless texts back and forth. I get a little cross-eyed in films that make us read the text bubbles onscreen while simultaneously watching the actor react to the same message. Likely a way to save on post-production effects, having this digital back and forth become IRL discussions adds a bit of magic to it all. It surely reduces the growing dread we have of what might happen next.

The catfish set-up is as awkward as it sounds, making the well of uncomfortable situations only grow as the film progresses as Morosini’s character decides he wants to meet his online girlfriend in person. In lesser hands, this could have turned into a raunchy yuck-o yuck fest, putting Morosini and Oswalt into situations I don’t even want to visualize. The movie resists that urge and lets the situation be the weirdest thing in the room, allowing the genuine spirit of Oswalt’s performance to come through. Often relegated to featured sidekicks, it’s terrific to see Oswalt’s talents used (and recognized) in this way; his scenes with Morosini have a great sincerity to them, while his work with Rachel Dratch is where he can turn the comic volume up. Avoiding the pitfalls of being the writer/director, Morosini feels unbiased in how he keeps things moving and genuine in his performance. 

I first saw I Love My Dad at the SXSW Film Festival in 2022 and felt then that it would be an audience pleaser. It went on to win not just the Audience Award (as predicted) but the Grand Jury Award. The sweet and sincere film well deserved the win(s), and I can tell it’s a title that will move around via word-of-mouth recommendation.  

After a successful theatrical and digital release, I Love My Dad is coming home for the holidays! In addition to being available at the sites listed below, you can purchase the movie on DVD and Blu-Ray at your retailer of choice. Details below!

Release Details

Street Date: November 8, 2022
Digital Availability: Apple TV, Prime Video, Vudu, Google Play, DirecTV and more
SRP: $26.98 (DVD), $29.98 (Blu-ray)

Movie Review ~ Doctor Strange

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by Movie Review • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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The Facts:

Synopsis: A former neurosurgeon embarks on a journey of healing only to be drawn into the world of the mystic arts.

Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Michael Stuhlbarg, Mads Mikkelsen, Tilda Swinton, Scott Adkins, Amy Landecker, Benedict Wong

Director: Scott Derrickson

Rated: PG-13

Running Length: 115 minutes

Trailer Review: Here

TMMM Score: (4/10)

Review: Can I let you in on a little secret?  Every time I hear the phrase ‘space time continuum’ in a movie I start to look for the nearest exit.  After years of taking in sci-fi movies that zig zag and fold back on themselves (like Interstellar and Inception) I’m at the point where any talk of the butterfly effect, messing with the natural order, or the aforementioned space time continuum means that naptime is imminent for The MN Movie Man.

I make this admission at the start of my review of Doctor Strange so you know that though I went in with mid-range expectations for Marvel’s latest superhero origin story (as 2nd tier as the Doctor Strange character may be), the moment the talk turned to time travel my internal timer started its countdown to impatience.  Here’s a film with a lot of heavy hitters and some big ideas that can never corral them all into being on the same page at the same time. What made previous Marvel films work so well (aside from Thor, Thor: The Dark World, and Ant-Man) was a meeting of the minds where effects and character lived in entertaining harmony.

Shades of the first Iron Man haunt the first quarter of the movie as we meet a brilliant but uncouth surgeon (Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game) known for his steady hand and icy heart.  A terrible car crash (never text and drive, ok?) leaves him scarred and shaky but just as cool and distant to those that care for him.  Exhausting his options medically he hears of a possible miracle cure near Kathmandu and it’s there he meets the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton, Trainwreck) who opens a new world of possibilities.

As he regains his strength and explores the untapped regions of his consciousness, Strange becomes wrapped up in a plot orchestrated by a nasty villain (Mads Mikkelsen, Casino Royale, who has a PhD in playing bad guys) and his crew of disciples wearing some fierce drag make-up to, what else?, destroy humanity.  Leaping from Hong Kong to London to New York, Strange makes a pit stop to get some medical attention from a former colleague and love interest (Rachel McAdams, Spotlight) before being chased through a kaleidoscopic parallel universe where the world gets turned literally upside down and inside out.

If you’re like me and are literally physically exhausted by movies that are all flash and special effects spectacle, you’ll get the same bad taste in your mouth from Marvel’s newest piece in their larger cinematic puzzle.  The best parts of Doctor Strange are also the most taxing on the brainwaves and when you add a 3D presentation on top of it all it’s time for the theaters should pass out free barf bags.  I don’t get queasy in movies but almost from the start I was nervously wondering where I would toss my cookies if I was forced to flee.

Yeah, the effects are impressive (and pleasantly colorful) when it counts but too often give off the stink of third level craftsmanship.  That goes for the script as well with McAdams’ character being so tragically underwritten they couldn’t even find a place for her to show up in the last 40 minutes.  Swinton seems to be having a crazy ball as a bald headed mystic (sketched in the comics as an elderly Asian man…oy) but Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) looks like he wants to cry for the majority of his screen time.  It’s only in the closing credits (it’s a Marvel movie, you know you need to stay to the end, right?) that we see what may have attracted him to the role.

That brings us to Cumberbatch who is merely serviceable in the title role.  Sitting here I can’t think who would have been better but the character is so onerous in his bravado that Cumberbatch has no room to wiggle around in.  Director Scott Derrickson (Sinister) doesn’t do him any favors by allowing a cape to steal the scenes it shares with Cumberbatch…yes you read the right, Cumberbatch gets upstaged by an article of clothing.

If credit should go to something, it should be to the entire cast for giving it the good old college try with some very silly material.  Cumberbatch and his gang have a way of conjuring portals to hop continents by doing a modified “wax on” sort of motion and around the 100th time this action is performed I had to let a laugh escape.  The sight of all these characters making something out of nothing draws some obvious parallels to the Oscar nominees playing them.  Destined to be one of the films you’ll beg to skip if doing a Marvel marathon down the road, Doctor Strange wheezes when it should whallop.