I Love My Dad is a 2022 indie Black Comedy about Franklin (James Morosino), a shy, aimless twentysomething recovering from a suicide attempt. He blocks his estranged father, Chuck (Patton Oswalt), on social media, after years of estrangement and Chuck's apparently harmless lying. In an attempt to get close to Franklin again, Chuck catfishes him using the personality of a friendly local waitress, Becca (Claudia Sulewski). However, the plot spirals out of control when Franklin falls hard for Becca.
It is apparently Based on a True Story of what happened between Morosino and his own father.
Tropes
- Bubbly Waitress: Chuck steals Becca's identity to catfish Franklin when he meets her working at a local greasy spoon. She stands out to him specifically because she's so kind and friendly.
- Catfishing: An extremely dark version. Chuck catfishes Franklin by pretending to be Becca, a scam which doesn't stop when it becomes clear Franklin is completely infatuated with "Becca".
- Cyberspace: Though Becca and Franklin communicate online, Franklin sees their conversations acted out on screen.
- Gaslighting: Chuck uses the personality of Becca to downplay a lot of his mistakes and bad behavior, which he achieves by giving her a Parting-Words Regret backstory.
- Incest Subtext: A very prominent part of the plot due to Chuck catfishing Franklin via Becca and Franklin falling madly in love with her. For example, Franklin tries to talk dirty to "Becca" (really Chuck) and imagines that he's having sex with her. Chuck, instead, sees that
he's French kissing his son. At one point, he steals Franklin's attempt to sext Becca. - Pervert Dad: Played with, because despite everything, Chuck really does catfish Franklin out of a desire to be close to him, but it does go to some perverted places.
- Symbolic Serene Submersion: When Franklin tries to kill himself by jumping into a swimming pool, he sees Becca sitting across from him underwater, both of them serenely submerged.
