I Love My Dad

This misguided, disturbing, squirm-inducing dark comedy certainly took a certain amount of courage to make, but the result is cruel, unfunny, and ultimately without much of a point. Morosini has said that I Love My Dad is based on a true story, which doesn't exactly help things. Despite horrified reactions from supporting characters played by Lil Rel Howery and Rachel Dratch, the movie doesn't quite seem to have a grip on just how despicable this act of catfishing really is. It's not only about a father playing with his fragile son's emotions in a selfish, vicious way, but it's also about a man who takes advantage of an innocent woman by stealing her identity.

By telling the story from this unforgivable character's point of view -- rather than the victim's -- the movie falls into a trap. It's similar in many ways to World's Greatest Dad, in which a father uses his dead son (who was a horrible person) to resurrect his writing career, but there was no real victim in that story, and the crime wasn't abysmally terrible. It came across as genuinely dark and funny as a result. I Love My Dad, on the other hand, is structured like a standard "lie comedy," in which viewers simply wait until the lie is revealed, to be followed by the fallout and a potential redemption, which here is unearned and unsatisfying. If only the movie had really been about something -- either the evils of the internet or a genuine look at family relationships. But it seems more interested in just pushing viewers' buttons.