About My Father movie review

MOVIE TITLE: About My Father

This cute comedy is now playing in theaters.

RATING: PG-13

LENGTH: 1 hour 29 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: B

IN A NUTSHELL:

When Sebastian tells his old-school Italian immigrant father, Salvo, that he is going to propose to his all-American girlfriend, Salvo has trouble fitting into the family.

The comedy was directed by Laura Terruso. Writing credits go to Austen Earl and the popular comedian himself: Sebastian Maniscalco.

THINGS I LIKED:

Academy Award-winner Robert De Niro and comic Sebastian Maniscalco make the perfect father/son combo in this movie and had great chemistry together. I loved the pair in this movie.
Robert De Niro was awesome and funny, as expected. He’s one of those rare actors that can do drama and comedy equally well. We even get to hear him speak Italian.
I’ve always enjoyed Sebastian Maniscalco’s stand-up comedy shows and physical-comedy schtick, so I’m thrilled to see him in a movie. I hope we get more. It was interesting to see him give his character his own name, probably because he revealed that he got his writing inspiration from his real-life Italian father, whom he often talks about in his stand-up bits.
Other cast members include Leslie Bigg, Kim Cattrall, David Rasche, Anders Holm, and Brett Dier. While their characters are extremely stereotyped, I thought they all did a great job with their roles.
With all of Hollywood’s remakes and superhero sequels, it’s nice to see a script about something new and lighthearted.
TONS of visual humor, especially in the beginning as funny images and narration provide a helpful background story.
We get to see a little bit of Sicily, Italy in video clips and photos. I’ve been to Italy several times but never Sicily…yet!
Lots of entertaining flashbacks.
If you’re a fan of Queer Eye, you’ll get a kick out of Jonathan Van Ness’ cameo.
I loved the cologne walk-through that the father and son did together a few times as they were getting dressed to go out.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

The story has been done many times over, but I still thought it was cute.
Some of the conversations, reactions, and situations are absolutely ridiculous and unrealistic.
It’s hard to feel sorry for a rich, beautiful girl when she throws her tantrum.
Some viewers may not like the narrative style of the film; however, I thought it matched Sebastian’s stand-up content and made the storytelling more charming and funny.
The plot is definitely formulaic and predictable.
Animal lovers: beware!
The humor is cliched and doesn’t always stick the landing.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

We see a naked rear end of a ma
Crude onversations about male anatomical body parts
People smoke cigars and drink a lot of champagne

THEMES:

Family
Money
Prestige
Economic status
Having an open mind
Jealousy
Judging others
Immigrants

FUNNY LINES:

“It can’t be like just a regular chair; it’s gotta have a whole backstory.” – Salvo (Robert DeNiro)
“Such a great job. Do you still have to have Herpes to work there?” – Anders Holm (Lucky)
“Just hope nothing gets stolen this weekend because these people love to blame the immigrants.” – Salvo (Robert DeNiro)
“What I saw today…you can’t come back from.” – Salvo (Robert DeNiro)
“It’s a cult. Instead of drinking Koolaid, they serve Champagne.” – Salvo (Robert DeNiro)

INTERESTING LINES:

“Family isn’t one important thing; it’s everything.” – Sebastian (Sebastian Maniscalco)
“Do everything you can to give your kids a better life than you had.” – Sebastian (Sebastian Maniscalco)
“So they got more money than us, who doesn’t?” – Sebastian (Sebastian Maniscalco)
“You raised me to be afraid of trying anything new.” – Sebastian (Sebastian Maniscalco)
“I wanted him to make an effort, not change everything about him completely.” – Sebastian (Sebastian Maniscalco)