Inadequacy peeks from behind the uncomfortable smiles and passive aggressive remarks that two adult men exchange in the presence of the 13-year-old boy under their care. Both of these visibly distressed would-be role models is desperate for some validation. The father, Jim (Colin Burgess), has driven his adolescent son Branson (played by boyish-looking adult actor Brian Fiddyment) to a home nestled inside a forest where Dave (Anthony Oberbeck), the kid\u2019s overly involved stepdad, is waiting for them. Suzie (Clare O’Kane), the woman that connects the male trio, is set to arrive later in the weekend.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the simple but effective setup of the consistently laugh-out-loud and unexpectedly poignant microbudget deadpan comedy \u201cDad & Step-Dad,\u201d from filmmaker Tynan DeLong. The feature expands on a series of short films starring these characters, played by the same actors, that DeLong created over the last few years. The concept is reminiscent of the childish feuding between the protagonists in Adam McKay\u2019s \u201cStep Brothers\u201d but filtered through the down-to-earth, far less in-your-face sensitivities of mumblecore filmmaking.<\/p>\n
Amid the tranquility of nature\u2014expressed in idyllic cutaway shots of the surrounding flora and fauna\u2014the two guys fight over every petty opportunity to assert their superiority in the eyes of Branson, who doesn\u2019t much care about their juvenile, but mostly restrained competitiveness. Neither David nor Jim embody the hypermasculine bro-type to get physically violent, but rather a defeated pair of dudes approaching middle age and on the verge of snapping. Under a veneer of politeness, they argue about the grill\u2019s temperature or whose approach to playing guitar is best suited to accompany Branson\u2019s freestyle rapping.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The humor derives from the self-seriousness of the line delivery, always without a hint of irony, and the uneasy silence that follows some of the most outrageous sentences uttered. A conversation on masturbation, a subject where Dave and Jim\u2019s beliefs differ radically, turns into an interrogation of both Branson\u2019s unusual desires and the most appropriate technique for self-pleasure. As preposterously awkward as the presentation of these parental dilemmas is, the underlying commonality is that they each exemplify how the men are projecting their own sense of failure onto the boy. It\u2019s about them and not Branson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Inadequacy peeks from behind the uncomfortable smiles and passive aggressive remarks that two adult men exchange in the presence of the 13-year-old boy under their care. Both of these visibly distressed would-be role models is desperate for some validation. The father, Jim (Colin Burgess), has driven his adolescent son Branson (played by boyish-looking adult actor …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-1253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy-movies","tag-comedy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}