Bill Burr's directorial film debut draws heavily on the subject matter from his stand-up and is based on his real life situation as an 'old dad'.
The story follows Bill as Jack Kelly, a man who angrily navigates his way through life in L. A where he is consistently frustrated and confused by the behaviours of people he encounters. It will be obvious to anybody familiar with Bill's work that he is very much playing himself here!
Jack clashes with parents, teachers, the twenty something nerd buying his company and pretty much everybody else he meets.
The story takes him and his buddies on a journey of self discovery that has been covered many times before in film so there is nothing new here in that respect and that could be considered one of the film's weaknesses.
What's refreshing about this movie is that it unashamedly takes shots at the obsurd elements of Gen Z culture and the desperate posturing that goes with it. The film's observations are spot on and Bill pulls no punches calling out the toxic culture that hides behind buzzwords, virtue signalling and false victimhood.
These kind of comedies used to be plentiful, but most modern studio movies are far too scared of upsetting anybody these days, so they are now sadly a dying genre.
Undoubtedly some people won't like this comedy, but to be honest that will be because they are the target of the jokes. Bill isn't trying to win these people over, he knows they don't have a sense of humour!
In summary, Whilst 'Old Dads' has some flaws, namely it bounces around too quickly from one story arc to the next without developing them, it is an entertaining comedy with some laugh out loud moments. Bobby Cannavale is fun to watch as a 50 year old guy desperately trying to be cool and Bill Burr is enjoyable to watch playing himself, delivering a good first shot at feature film directing that suggests future promise.
