Alex Wheeler Movie Ops

The dad movie is well-trod territory since everyone seems to have a gripe with their parents, and dads tend to draw the most ire. They can be reserved, demanding, or just plain mean because our culture doesn’t encourage men to have a nurturing temperament. So if we’re promised a dad and never got a decent one the wound runs deep, hence all the movies about searching for one.

Bob Trevino Likes It is another in a long list of movies about fathers and daughters, with Barbie Ferreira’s Lily sputtering into adulthood with little guidance from her parents. Her mom abandoned her years ago while her dad (French Stewart) stayed, although that doesn’t make him a great parent. Self-absorbed and petty, he now only interacts with Lily if it benefits him, and Lily’s rundown of her childhood with a new therapist reveals that’s always been the dynamic. When a minor misstep by Lily causes him to abruptly cut her off, she tries every way she can to get him back, including searching Facebook for any account under his name.

Bob Tevino is her dad’s name and the name of John Leguizamo’s character, an unrelated man who’s experiencing his own flavor of loneliness. They each tentatively interact with each other, first online and eventually in person, forming a relationship they both long for.

It’s a very clean plot, the trappings of which will be familiar to anyone who’s seen a movie. It’s so familiar that many will be rolling their eyes within minutes of starting the film, its unabashed use of clichés being jarring in the early going. But stick with it, because once you settle into its world you’ll find a lovely tale, indeed.

The film is roughly based on writer/director Tracie Laymon’s experience of a fatherly stranger on Facebook, a kernel of truth she expanded using well-worn tropes into Bob Trevino. That could have been a mistake that dragged the movie into tedium, but she manages to find the reason these tropes exist: they work. Play them right and they’ll sing, and the vast majority of the time Laymon strikes just the right tone. The plucky, people-pleasing daughter. The self-assured best friend. The dad who knows how to fix a toilet and make a terrible pun. Despite being based on a true story, none of this feels real, and that’s fine when you’re creating a fantasy as sweet as this one.

There is a small bite to the film, namely in the characterization of Lily’s father. His narcissistic behavior is painfully real, even as Stewart finds comedy in the cruelty. The portrayal fits because a narcissist is over the top, their cloying for attention as absurd as any trope Laymon could find. I mean, the scene where he gives Lily an itemized list of expenses from raising her should be an otherworldly exaggeration of parental guilt-tripping, but sadly its an all too real manipulation.

But ultimately, what holds Bob Trevino together is its two stars. Ferreira has been waiting for another showcase after impressing in Unpregnant several years ago, and much like she did in that film, she is asked to strike both comedic and dramatic moments here. Luckily, she’s as adept at a perfectly timed zinger as she is at projecting immense vulnerability. Her ability to swing between these extremes is the reason all the tropes land. When filtered through such a great actor, the truths behind the tropes come to the fore.

Leguizamo has slightly less to do, but he’s excellent at making Bob an immensely comforting figure without making him so soft that he seems incapable. He’s steady, yes, but he’s not unwilling to take risks. The whole relationship is one big risk, and the tentativeness he brings to Bob shows that this relationship isn’t all about Lily. He has an absence in his life as well, and trying to make peace with it is something he needs Lily for. That balance the two strike, the giving between Leguizamo and Ferreira, smooths over how quickly Lily and Bob’s relationship develops. Each makes their characters’ longing palpable, which spurs their reckless dives into the relationship. That they find someone else who is sweet, good, and able to provide what they need is what makes the film feel like a fantasy. But at least part of it, that kernel Laymon experienced herself, is true, and that grounding makes all the wonderful moments the film portrays feel beautifully attainable. If you have ever longed for these, Bob Trevino will be irresistible.

Release: streaming on Hulu
Director: Tracie Laymon
Writers: Tracie Laymon
Cast: Barbie Ferreira, John Leguizamo, French Stewart