The trope of an angry young man who is the product of divorce is pretty common. Films like Richard Linklater’s Boyhood try to capture that feeling of the broken home and how kids turn out when they’re spending their time split between two parents; most notably, that feeling of being your parents’ sounding board as they continually badmouth each other. This is something that feels left out of the picture when we discuss divorce, since it isn’t always from the perspective of the now-adult child. For me, this is why My Dead Dad hits very close to home.
Fabio Frey’s My Dead Dad tells the story of a young man named Lucas Varela (Pedro Correa), who — after not speaking to his father, Augusto (Ricardo Molina), for 10 years — finds out he has passed away from lung cancer. After his mother, Jane (Terry Walters), breaks the news, she also lets Lucas know he has inherited his father’s apartment complex in Los Angeles. Lucas leaves for LA fully intent on selling the complex and getting out of there, only to meet Frank (Raymond Cruz), Sophie (Courtney Dietz), and many other tenants who help him learn about his father and process his grief.
From the start, Lucas’ father’s possessions litter his life. He arrives at an apartment full of boxes, a run-down complex full of tenants, a hoarder’s beach house, and more. To go from never speaking to your father to being constantly surrounded by everything he owned and everyone who knew him is overwhelming, and you can see this in Correa’s performance. Lucas, specifically, is a deadbeat twenty-something who we are constantly told has aspirations of something more and has a great personality, but we only see him at his worst from the start. At rock bottom, Lucas is rude to everyone around him, unable to recognize anyone from his father’s life despite them saying how many times they have met him, and determined to be a lone wolf.
Throughout the film, My Dead Dad uses interjections of home video-style cuts from the perspective of Lucas as a young boy to show us what his family used to be like. Lucas loved to skateboard and play sports, his parents played with him, and they all looked happy. At first, I wasn’t sure if I liked the technique, but as it played out I found it was the best way to show Lucas’ memories. While the idea of a young Lucas videotaping his father as he packs and leaves is a bit unbelievable, I found that it was effective and helped put a face to the man every character in this movie won’t stop bringing up.
My Dead Dad is a well-shot film, and Correa and Frey do a lot with a premise and story that could have been much more cookie-cutter. Raymond Cruz is a standout as Lucas’ unwanted “father figure” and carries a lot of the emotional weight with his pointed words, constantly trying to open Lucas up to the pain he hasn’t dealt with. Also, Simon Rex’s few scenes as Sophie’s DJ boyfriend were highlights for me.
I appreciate a resolution where the good guy doesn’t get everything the film is setting him up for, but does get the emotional crescendo that he needs to move on with his life. It is satisfying, and any clunkiness leading up to the conclusion seems less important. The brewing anger that one can feel for their parents’ choices, the frustration of never being able to “blow up” and talk about those feelings, can prevent your life from moving forward. It leaves you stewing in imagined conversations you will never have. Add on the fact that Lucas’ father left his whole life to him without his real consent and that everyone involved continually tells him what his own father was like, and you can clearly see why Lucas feels the way he does. Children have no control over their parents’ actions, sometimes even when they become adults themselves. We can only try and forgive without losing sight of what we need to move on.
