Dad and Step-Dad: A Comedy Where Even the Kid is Just an Overgrown Adult

Jim and Dave, a dad and a step-dad, have trouble bonding during a 3-day weekend upstate with their son, Branson.

REVIEW:

Jim (Colin Burgess) and Dave (Anthony Obereck) are the titled Dad and Step-dad who are both desperate for validation with the 13-year-old child in their care. The child, Branson a lumbering bear of a man-child, with a load of afternoon stubble to make a baby porcupine blush, is played by the very adult but buffoonish Brian Fiddyment.

Burgess and Obereck look visibly distressed when ever one of the three turn away or they’re alone. The three are there for a weekend wilderness retreat with the wife/ex wife, Suzie (former SNL member Clare O’Kane) due to be there the next day.

Dad and Step-Dad will try to awkwardly bond with Branson and each other for the rest of the film’s eighty minute runtime. Their feelings of inadequacy will be explored. Mistakes made in their marriage will be analyzed, commiserated and acknowledged. Jim and Dave will be lost and then found literally and figuratively.

Dad and Step-dad evolved from a series of shorts about these characters (with the same actors) directed by Tynan Delong over a few years. The feeling developed is a cross between crude comedy and mumblecore. Jim is an overly stern father, Dave an overly involved step-dad. Burgess has a comedy background, Obereck a drama school one. The film exists as an awkward, somewhat poignant fusion of opposites.

Jim and Dave fight for the prize of Branson’s admiration, something which makes the kid retreat further into his shell. This is two middle age dudes, neither hypermasculine, nor overly violent, on the verge of snapping. Their weapons of choice- passive -aggressive behavior and barbs doled out in false politeness. Their self-serious, unironic sparring generates the comedy and exposes their sense of failures. To Delong’s credit, he gives Jim and Dave the alone time needed to work it out and bond.

The movie develops a richness of inner character in this rivalry between optimism and inadequacy. It allows the movie’s heart and soul to evolve emotionally and intellectually- and within its microbudget and story limitations. Dad and Step-dad is all about how man-children become men and good fathers.