My Dead Dad

I was initially immediately attracted to the prospect of this film based on the inclusion of Jackass luminary Chris Pontius. The tone of the opening made me think it was delivering exactly what I was hoping for. As an added bonus, the IMDB page promises both frontal and rear male nudity which is not something I will ever say no to under any circumstances.

Upon my first and final viewing of the film on the venerable HBO Max platform, I was immediately stricken with immeasurable disappointment in that skateboarding is not a central theme nor is it a major plot point. Despite being sold this false bill of goods, I pressed on in the interest of male nudity. The movie itself is very well acted. In particular, the performance of Chris Pontius was, in my opinion, some of the best if not THE BEST acting he has done in his career. Pedro Correa, as the lovable dirtbag Lucas Varela, was clearly drawing on his past experiences as a LA area landlord while portraying the character. I do not doubt the authenticity of his lived experiences as I too have had many landlords who were altogether terrible at maintaining their properties. There was a guy from Breaking Bad in there somewhere, or so I was later told, so that is worth mentioning.

Having a dead parent can often make you sad, but as this movie tells it, things are not that bad if you get to bang hot chicks with crippled limbs on the reg as I assume Lucas is want to do. They say we should never meet our heroes, and luckily for Lucas, he does not have to, and gets to know his titular dead father (who is not in fact named dad but something else altogether) through the tenants of the building who knew him prior to his passing. This is an interesting concept on its face, but the story seemed inauthentic at best despite the enthusiastic performances of the cast. Except for the landlord parts, those were all really good.

Unfortunately, not even the venerable Chris Pontius could save this dull prolonged road trip of a movie. The contrived plights of the building's tenants failed to move me and the lack of skateboarding content beyond occasional spurts was definitely to the film's detriment. At the end of the day, I watched this film with my 6 year old brother, and he did not seem to understand the weird world the characters seemed to find themselves in. It is rare that I agree with 6 year olds on anything, but My Dead Dad is a notable exception.

This is the primary theme in Correa's touching play My Dead Dad, which explores how the concept of a connection might be reframed via reflection. Lucas moves to Los Angeles with the intention of quickly selling his father's property, but as the building and its tenants begin to take an emotional interest in him, his aims begin to diminish.

Aside from the catchy title, "My Dead Dad" brings to mind a particular style of independent film from the 1990s that combined a high concept with low budget and ultimately focused on moments, whether they were created by a single actor, between actors, or by a group of relatively unknown actors finding their voice. That's how "Dad" is; cleverly directed, gorgeously edited, and with a cast of actors who all get their moment to shine.

If you're thinking of watching this for the skateboarding action, don't.

If you're hoping for some male nudity like one of the other reviewers, you'll be as disappointed as they were.

If you're wanting see some feel good moments from the residents of the apartments as Lucas learns about their lives, yeah, that doesn't happen either.

And if you're hoping for some real heart-warming moments as he learns about his dead dad, there's none of those either.

What does happen is a crappy, chemistry void love triangle, alongside some weed smoking, surface friendships.

I watched this as the trailer looked sweet and it had 7 on IMDB. I'm hoping my more accurate rating of 2 will save others 90 minutes of their life.

I love being surprised. With My Dead Dad I totally was. It has all the working parts of a film festival champion. The lead Pedro Correa is sensational. Even more so because this film was his baby. I loved the home movie footage best. It was really believable. The acting is good, the direction simple yet nuanced. I loved it.

I honestly tried my best to give this a chance, but it's another one that I'd give to someone I was mad at. Perhaps it picked up after I was bored to sleep, but I'll never know. I'm an old man with only so much time left and I think it would be more exciting to cut an apple in half and watch it turn brown. Or, fill an aluminum piepan with water and watch it evaporate!