Old Dads – Yelling At Clouds The Movie

Bill Burr is an acquired taste. The abrasive stand-up comedian and his often not politically correct style of observational comedy has garnered him an audience who can relate to his feelings about how society is now a far cry from his day and has since changed for the worst. His humor provides a distraction from what the world is with what the world was which was better. His feature written (alongside co-writer Ben Tishler) and directorial debut, Old Dads, is essentially an extension of Burr’s act for better or worse. Also starring, the film merely sees him deliver commentary, or what some would call complaining, about an evolving society that had passed him by. A virtual outsider, he makes himself into a target in a way that is neither relatable or endearing. What would have helped the film was humor that was actually funny and not incredibly lazy. That being said, some may find some laughs here but the writing, for the most part, is stiff and awkward at best. Creating a black hole that devours all charm and charisma, there is very little effort there in terms of performances, making it feel nothing more than a paycheck movie.

Old Days follows Jack Kelly (Burr) and his two best friends, business partners, and fellow dads, Connor Brody (Cannavale) and Mike Richards (Woodbine). Thinking that the three were set for life after selling their apparel company, their lives were turned upside down by a caricaturish millennial CEO named Aspen Bell (Miles Robbins) who had different ideas that went against the spirit of the company they started decades prior. Losing their jobs quickly sent the three into a tailspin where Jack’s anger issues consistently got him in trouble in every aspect of his life. The root of this was of course his inability to adapt and grow with the times which isn’t exactly the hardest thing to figure out. Meanwhile, the other dads and the other moms and their issues and respective arcs were pretty much an afterthought in comparison. With derivative humor, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the structure of the film is fairly predictable as well. Every rise and fall is accompanied by some sort of lesson learned on the way back up and this remained to be the case here. However, poor writing and irritating characters make it meaningless.

When it came to the performances, the apparent lack of effort shown throughout can mostly be attributed to the inexperience shown through the script and direction. While there were little to no laughs to be had, there was little to no chemistry to be had between Burr, Cannavale, and Woodbine as Jack, Connor, and Mike. Feeling like they were in 3 different films, they perhaps would have fared better in those films, but putting them together in this one did not work. Katie Aselton, Reign Edwards, and Jackie Tohn as the three dads’ significant others, Leah, Brtiney, and Cara, were better thought spent most of their time being pushed aside. If anything, Robbins definitely commits to his caricaturish role and Bruce Dern makes a scene-stealing cameo.

At the end of the day, Old Dads is a painful and self-indulgent exercise whose sole purpose is seemingly to give Burr another avenue to air his grievances.     

still courtesy of Netflix

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.