I Love My Dad Teaser: Patton Oswalt Has The Worst Way To Keep In Touch With His Son

Are you ready for a dose of serious cringe? We're talking, maybe don't eat first, give your therapist a preemptive phone call, prepare the brain bleach. That kind of cringe. Magnolia Pictures has released a teaser trailer for their upcoming film "I Love My Dad." The film premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas in March 2022 (where it won the Jury and Audience Awards at the SXSW Narrative Feature Competition., and our own Ethan Anderton gave it a rave review at the time. Since none of those sentences seem to connect, let me explain the premise of the film for you. Prepare yourself, because this is wild, and it's based on a true story. 

In "I Love My Dad," Patton Oswalt plays a man named Chuck, a sort of dead beat dad who hasn't really connected with his son since he and his son's mom were divorced. He's mostly been keeping in touch with him through disappointing voicemails, text messages and following him on social media. As we see in the trailer, he's leaving his son a voicemail about how he isn't seeing a Facebook profile anymore, presumably because he's been blocked. So Chuck comes up with a very, very upsetting way to fix that. Maybe watch the trailer before I go any further here.

Yes, Chuck is keeping in touch with his son Franklin (James Morosini, who also wrote and directed the film) by catfishing him. He creates a profile based on an actual waitress named Becca (Claudia Sulewski), and they start flirting and chatting, with the audience seeing their online interactions as imaginary real-life dates between Becca and Franklin. Neither Chuck's significant other Erica (played by Rachel Dratch) nor his co-worker Jimmy (played by Lil Rel Howery) think this is a good idea, because they're right-thinking people. I mean, there is an entire show about how bad catfishing is, my friends. It's been on for a really long time, but I'm not sure they ever had a case like this one. 

Despite the creepy premise, many critics have been praising this film, and our own Ethan Anderton was one of them. In his review he wrote that the movie has "some surprising twists and turns that make this one of the most cringeworthy movies ever." However, if cringeworthy comedy doesn't turn you off, "You'll be treated to an absolutely perfect performance from Patton Oswalt, who brings surprising sweetness to this father manufacturing a heinously despicable lie."

You put Patton Oswalt in anything and that's probably going to happen, of course. The other crazy thing (because there can't be just one crazy thing with this premise) is that this is based on Morosini's real experience with his actual dad. 

I feel like this is going to be one of those heartwarming films that you appreciate after you've twisted yourself up into a pretzel shape, trying to avoid the squick in your own mind. 

"I Love My Dad" also stars Ricky Velez as Derek, and Amy Landecker as Diane. The film will hit theaters on August 5, 2022 and will be available on demand on August 12, 2022. The Blu-ray and DVD will be available starting November 8, 2022.