Patton Oswalt not only catfishes his son over the course of“I Love My Dad” but also flat-out catfished me. I entered expecting a quirky Patton Oswalt comedy, but I left having inhaled sharply and butt-clenched the most out of any movie I can remember in a while. The poster, our main actor and even our general catfishing premise seem attuned for a generic, quirky family comedy trying to comment on the evils of social media, but don’t swipe left just yet, folks … “I Love My Dad” is wickedly smart and, at times, terrifying, aiming its critique not at “those dang phones” but at the flawed people who use them in such a way that they become “those dang phones …” or something a little more sinister than that. 

Oswalt plays Chuck, a divorced dad estranged from his son Franklin, played by our director James Morosini. Franklin struggles with depression and is suicidal, for which the divorce, and mostly Chuck, are blamed. We are, at first, introduced to Chuck  as a man struggling to reconnect with and help his son; he cares, he’s trying and he’s played by Patton Oswalt. Why wouldn’t we root for him? Franklin blocks his number and insists that having Chuck around is the last thing he needs for his mental health. In a desperate attempt to stay in his son’s life, Chuck assumes the identity of Becca (Claudia Sulewski), a waitress at his local diner, and chats with Franklin over social media. As one might expect, things take a dark turn once Franklin begins developing feelings for Becca, and Chuck must keep up the ruse not only to maintain a relationship with his son, but to maintain the one source of happiness in Franklin’s life. 

The trajectory of “I Love My Dad” is fairly predictable, and even as someone who avoids social media, many of Chuck’s obstacles can be seen from a mile away. It starts simple, like Franklin wanting to do a video or  phone call, and evolves into wanting to meet Becca in person. However, “I Love My Dad” is a rare instance in which having such a clear direction in the screenplay doesn’t rob each beat of its dramatic weight. A part of this lies in the creativity with which the film navigates Franklin’s relationship with “Becca.” As he chats with her, this persona will actually appear in the scene to talk to Franklin, which both heightens the potential for comedy (such as voicing the “ha ha’s” in text conversations) and the intimacy of the relationship. Many social media satires insist that the internet  pushes people apart, whereas “I Love My Dad” understands that the danger lies in the opposite. Despite being purely text, these conversations can still feel real and touch serious topics; that Becca seems to care grants Franklin’s life meaning. There’s always an element of construction in these conversations, since you can’t see the other person: What both people put out is filtered, absent of body language, intonation and other nuances that color dialogue absent in pure text. Franklin fills in the blanks and falls in love with what he creates out of Chuck gives him as “Becca.”

Granted, there’s nothing inherently wrong with finding love over social media either (you hear of online romances that end in real life marriage all the time), but it’s certainly a problem when you’re getting catfished … especially when it’s by your dad. Chuck’s character is especially interesting, largely because what appears at first to be a goofy sitcom setup is discovered to be rooted in some real problems; we, the audience, are also catfished. Chuck is a compulsive liar, and his lies corroded his marriage and, seemingly, his son’s mental health. Chuck isn’t so much a horror film villain as much as he is a person deeply in need of help, one who uses the tools at their disposal to fill a need they aren’t aware is harmful to the people in their lives. His exercise is borne out of loneliness and a genuine love for his son, without  a hint of malignance, but that pathological selfishness casts a fog over him that prevents him from seeing what’s really at stake here: his son’s life. Franklin’s mental health t raises the stakes throughout; as Chuck bends the truth more and more, his son becomes even more dependent on the lie for happiness. He can’t see how dangerous a game he’s playing, and he can’t begin to understand the futility of this exercise, potentially losing the very thing he’s seeking to gain forever in the process. 

Having been lied to about serious topics over social media makes me resonate with these kinds of stories, oddly enough. It’s a reminder that on the other side of the screen is a human being, driven by their own complexities, flaws and problems, all of which are harder to detect when a relationship is filtered through screens. “I Love My Dad” strikes a balance between Chuck’s humanity and his pathology, allowing his flaws to chart the obstacles and raise the stakes of the circumstances he finds himself in. For all I’ve said, it may surprise some that there is comedy here, moments of levity arising both from the irony of his actions and from the writing itself, but “I Love My Dad” is difficult to watch at times. It’s a film about constructed connections and how dangerous the dissolution of those connections can be to us as social animals. We’ve seen another film like this in 2022’s  “Not Okay” (another well-written satire), but what sets this apart is Chuck’s role as the catfish-ee’s dad. The film centers itself on human flaws, on how lying poisons relationships, and uses social media as the vehicle for that. So be careful who you trust on there, it could be a liar, or worse, even your dad … even if he’s being played by Patton Oswalt. 

Rating: 4/5