ONEas far as the grown-ups fishing by their father away, actor and filmmaker James Morosini is adjusted significantly.
Of course, there aren’t many standards by which to compare, in terms of people who, when they were 20 years old, received a Facebook message from an attractive girl named Becca who shared all of their similar interests at once. magically, leading to an extensive flirting network. -romance — before discovering that Becca is actually their father, whom they once loved and are trying to keep in touch by posing as a young girl with a crush. (Phu.)
So yes, Morosini might rank among the few, if not the only, population samples when it comes to such a horrifying, potentially traumatic life event. But the actor, who most recently played Dalton, the soccer coach is romantically involved with one of his students on HBO Max’s The sex life of college girls, handled it in a way that seemed as sane as possible. In fact, he’s so healthy that he’s now written and directed a movie about it, a part of his life he’s carried with him as an embarrassing secret — and has now shown to a huge audience. moviegoers, industry insiders, critics, and journalists at SXSW Film Festival.
When we first met on Zoom, it was impossible not to say, “This is a crazy story!” It was a reflex — and it was true — but we immediately covered our mouths with horror, trying to push the reaction back. Saying this to someone is callous, if not judgmental. This is not a crazy story. That is his life.
“No, I’ll take it!” Morosini said. “I think it’s a crazy story.”
The filmmaker, now 31, grins — a masculine smirk that showcases his handsome features, the sharp jawline allowing him to play a younger, semi-fictional version of himself in his films. “One of the main reasons I wrote it is because I can see how weird this is. It’s a wonderful blend of something really weird, but also strangely beautiful. “You read it right: beautiful.
I love my dad premieres Saturday at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Once you become aware of the subject, it’s a title that carries an alarming double connotation. That’s the second feature that Morosini, who also appeared in American Horror Story: Roanoke and YouTube Red’s rom-com series Four people, wrote and directed. First, Tuesdaythe chronicle of the fall of a ménage à trois is horribly wrong.
The urge was to stealthily ask Morosini about I love my dad. What happened to him was grotesque and abusive. At times, you almost want to laugh. But it also requires sensitivity. It really happened. The act of revisiting it to write, direct, and star in this film—let alone sit with journalists and talk about it openly—can be healing. But it can also be enabled.
“I believe that everything I do creatively forces me to grow in one way or another, or makes me uncomfortable in one way or another,” says Morosini. “This is the most annoying thing I can write about.”
There are elements of the movie, and Morosini’s real story, that will shock audiences, beyond the obvious scandal of the fish catch – for example, that he and his father actually did this, and that I love my dad taking great care not to offend this cinematic interpretation of him, do Patton Oswalt.
James Morosini and Patton Oswalt in I love my dad
SXSW
Morosini wanted audiences to identify with his character’s father, Franklin. Maybe they’ll even find themselves getting started on his strange plan – raising his son to feel closer to him – to succeed. If not to that extent, they could at least understand where his head was when he decided to start creating a fake social media account to check on him.
Morosini said. But, yes, it is also healing. “I wanted it to be as personal and make me feel as revealing as possible.”
The movie begins with a title tag we often see in movies based on true stories like this: “The following actually happened.” But then, shortly after, there’s a disclaimer: “My dad asked me to tell you it didn’t.”
When it opens in I love you, we meet Franklin, Morosini’s character, who is completing a rehab program to deal with what appears to be major depression and suicidal ideation. Through editing past voicemails, we are introduced to Father Franklin’s long history as a disappointment. Plan canceled. Great promises renewed. The promptings of love immediately followed by begging for forgiveness to become ghosts again.
Eventually, Franklin blocked his father’s number and blocked him on social media. After consulting his mother (Amy Landecker) and counselor, he stipulates that cutting off contact would be better for his mental health and recovery. The film also spends a lot of time following Oswalt’s character, Chuck, who is yearning to reconnect. A friend, played by Lil Rel Howery, told him about a time when he pretended to be someone else on social media to get back with his ex.
No one, not least Chuck, imagined that this would be an outcome, let alone sane, for help with his situation. But after encountering a nice waitress at a local diner named Becca (Claudia Sulewski), Chuck finds her on Facebook and decides to use her photo to create a fake account that he can use. text Franklin. To his credit, he has a slump before he does. He realized that this was inappropriate. But he hit send anyway, and was surprised/confused/excited/afraid that Franklin texted back immediately.
“I wanted it to be as personal and make me feel as exposed as possible.”
Once they get over their confusion as to why a stranger would approach, Franklin and Becca connect deeply. Of course they know, because Chuck knows the personal details of Franklin and what he needs to hear to feel special. The conversations worked wonders as they boosted Franklin’s self-esteem and lifted him out of the fog of depression.
It was all very sweet. Other elements of their conversation: God, no.
Franklin falls in love and starts texting Becca. Panicked, Chuck followed suit. When Franklin texts Becca about what it feels like to pretend to kiss her, he’s actually texting his father — and his dad is texting what it feels like to pretend to kiss him back. It goes so far that when things escalate to sexual texting, Chuck sends Franklin’s dirty texts to his own girlfriend (Rachel Dratch), and then copied and pasted her erotic replies to Franklin as if they had come from Becca. They have sex online.
Morosini arranges these scenes so that they are a mixture of the weird, the thrilling, the macabre, and the comedic. But they’re also straight out of a horror movie.
“I take the kernel of what really happened and extrapolate based on that, and use my imagination to push it to the furthest extent,” What if it went even further? this direction? “” said Morosini. “Or, you know, what if I didn’t find out? Or what if it took me longer to figure it out? ”
In real life, he struggled with depression and anxiety throughout his twenties. He and his father were going through a tough time and after a big battle, he decided that he didn’t want him in his life anymore. He changed his father’s number on the phone to “No Answer”. He has blocked him on social networks.
“I take the kernel of what really happened and extrapolate based on that, and use my imagination to push it as far as, ‘What if it went even further in this direction? ?’”
Then one day, he came home to find a beautiful girl sent him a friend request on Facebook. They have the same interests. As time went on, he found himself becoming more and more interested in her and excited at the prospect of their future. Later, he discovered that her email address was the same as his father’s.
At the time, he and his father had planned to go to family therapy to mend their relationship. Before the first lesson, Morosini printed out this girl’s Facebook profile. In the room, his father began to talk about how unreasonable Morosini had been to exclude him from his life. Morosini remembers looking him straight in the eye, slamming the print on the table and asking, “Who’s Becca?”
“We ourselves hit the bottom in our relationship, but it forced us to confront some of the fundamental issues of our relationship and really made things between him and me go well. a lot more over time, because we have to talk about it,” said Morosini.
Believe it or not, there is an argument that this is a good thing that happened. In fact, Morosini might even be grateful. “It’s funny how this moment in my life with him was perhaps the saving grace of our relationship, in that it made everything really fall apart. No more pretending. We can both agree, this is crazy. And now we have to talk about it. We can’t pretend that everything is fine between us.”
Morosini and his father have a good relationship today. That might explain why, despite being a proud dad, his dad had some doubts about the idea that this eyebrow-raising phase of their healing journey was well documented. source for a feature film — hence the whole “did my father ask me to tell you it” [happen]”Title tag.
In their discussions about this, Morosini said that a key point was to ensure that his father was not portrayed as – or talked about – estranged. The time when he cut off contact with him came personally with his father, and he did everything he could to be a part of his life again. (As we know it now, he probably did also a lot of.)
Of course Morosini remembers learning about fishing, though at the time a decade ago he wasn’t sure if the phenomenon was well known enough for him to have that vocabulary. He was embarrassed and extremely angry. He’s told very few people about it over the years.
“I remember one time my dad picked me up from camp when I was a kid,” he said. “He cut his own hair, and it looked completely insane. I just remember being ahead of him and being so embarrassed in front of him. That’s the feeling the event gives me.”
Although everything works out in the end, I love my dad Be careful to highlight how completely no OK all his father did was. The characters in the movie when they learn about it will react appropriately, the same way you or I would, meaning they are rebellious, angry, and concerned about the boy’s well-being. Care must be taken to point out that, especially as the ruse escalates, his father is tortured and contradicted by it every step of the way.
“I think the movie is about that period in your life when you realize your parents weren’t perfect and you really hate them for it,” Morosini said. “Then you end up turning around and you realize, oh, I’m not perfect either. They are human. I am the person. Maybe there’s a way for us to connect. I love my father. This is truly a celebration of how complicated our relationship was. It’s a celebration of trying to forgive people, and when it feels like there’s no way forward, trying to figure out how to work towards one person. “
