Patton Oswalt is an actor with a fun sense of humor and a loving attitude. In his newest feature I Love My Dad, he delivers the performance of being a risktaker. Not one for bad terms, but one for reconnection. I Love My Dad is a dark comedy that is clever with its deceit methods. The film itself though displays positive vibes between its characters despite the risks of Oswalt’s character. I found I Love My Dad to be inspiring. The estrangement concept of the film is a reminder of why it is important to remain close to the ones we love, even in challenging times.

The concept of estrangement in I Love My Dad is a heavy feeling for Oswalt’s character. The film is quirky, but in the lighthearted and connecting sense. The theme of mental health and disconnect between father and son is the central problem of the film. Oswalt displays the moods of being a father that is both angry and depressed by feeling shunned by his son. I found myself to have some positive laughs at the way Oswalt can display his grouchy self. Despite the hard concept of the film, Oswalt always finds a way to throw some laughs with his films or his characters.

In I Love My Dad Oswalt is Chuck. His son is Franklin, and he is played by James Morosini. Chuck and Franklin have always struggled to see eye-to-eye. Franklin has been in and out of mental health programs, and Chuck has been dismissed from Franklin’s life. That all changes though when Chuck comes across a girl at a diner. Her name is Becca, and she is played by Claudia Sulewski. Chuck realizes that with Becca being a cute girl that it can be a way to get his son’s attention. Chuck makes a fake profile with Becca’s picture on it and reaches out to his son from that fake profile which he creates. Franklin is in excitement and feels the girl of his dreams is right there waiting for him. Chuck is in excitement as well, and that is because he is communicating with his son again. He is by pretending to be Becca. Chuck may feel some bonding again, but he does not realize what kind of irreparable consequences can happen if Franklin finds out that it is his father pretending to be Becca.

The covert operation on Chuck’s end in the film has its moments of getting out of hand. There are times where Franklin makes requests in the chats to speak or see Becca, but of course as Chuck being the imposter, he declines. I Love My Dad slowly keeps entering a slippery slope of uncharted territory of emotions for both Franklin and Chuck. For Chuck though, nothing stops him from bonding with his son. That is why he keeps falling into the pattern of pretending to be Becca through the fake social media profile he created. Morosini is also the director, and he knows how to build character chemistry of tension in Oswalt’s performance and his performance as Franklin.

I Love My Dad is a loving and touching film. Despite the deceits and the harshness, it brings the bonding of father and son back. It is a film that is about giving others we love another chance. It also shows how far some go to help their children. Three and a half stars for I Love My Dad.

Where the Crawdads Sing is based on the popular book by Delia Owens. The film is directed by Olivia Newman, and I found it to be convincing in the narrative sense. The opening entails a dangerous past, and the film is a journey of discovery for a girl who had to raise herself. Actress Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Kya, the main character. Her voice narrates the darkness of her past and makes the movie enthralling.

Where the Crawdads Sing presents itself in an out-of-focus manner and has a murder mystery vibe. The points that are unfocused link to Kya’s character as she goes through trauma and makes various errors as a child. Her character seeks the means to educate herself because she lives in a time when school was not a viable option for a girl like her. Kya is the ultimate and wonderful hero of Where the Crawdads Sing. She encounters many complex obstacles on her journey, and Jones is believable and faithful in her performance as Kya.

The plot of the film centers around Kya, a girl abandoned by her parents at a young age. She grows up in the marshes of North Carolina in the 1960s. The people in her region, Barkley Cove, refer to her as the Marsh Girl. While Kya is raising herself, she finds love in her life with two different men at two different times. They are Tate Walker and Chase Andrews (played by Taylor John Smith and Harris Dickinson). Kya finds herself as the suspect in the murder of Chase which is the worst situation in her already difficult life. Fortunately, she has an attorney who is committed to finding a way to help her. Her attorney is Tom Milton who is played by David Strathairn. Tom believes he can keep Kya out of prison, but Kya must revisit the negative moments she once had with Chase to convince the people of Barkley Cove believe that she is not Chase’s murderer. Heads begin to roll with many questions as the drama and evidence run deep.

As Kya is consumed with stress and depression, her mental state links back to where she felt connected the most. The film exploresmore challenging issues for Kya, and its audience. The moment where Kya feels most loved and appreciated are when she is being taught to read by Tate. Kya’s says in one scene, “I didn’t know words can hold so much.” Kya feels a form of connection that she never had. I truly appreciated Where the Crawdads Sing for its empathetic moments.

The invigorating aspect of this movie comes from the way it portrays the emotional power of love. Kya has a life where love is also discombobulated with abuse, infidelity, and betrayal. Kya’s suffering is not what she deserves. Where the Crawdads Sing is a tale that is faithful to its book adaptation and its cinematic audience. Watching the film is like putting a puzzle together to determine what the outcome will be for Kya. The harsh evidence against her displays the hatred and suspicion Kya has had to endure in her short life. Three stars for this solidly adapted film with many emotional obstacles that is a bit overdone at times, but fans of the book are bound to adore.

At first, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris seemed like a pleasant enough flick with a promising premise and a stellar cast. And I did enjoy the film in moments. But ultimately I found its plot to be dry and I was mostly bored by the film.

In Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, Lesley Manville plays Ada Harris, a widowed cleaning lady in the London area. While cleaning houses for wealthy people she comes across a Dior dress that she becomes obsessed with and she travels to Paris to pursue her own Dior dress. Marquis de Chassagne, played by Lambert Wilson, is one of the men associated with the Dior line and Mrs. Harris tries to build a rapport with him. Claudine Colbert, played by Isabelle Huppert, is on the staff that oversees the high-end dress department and she tries to thwart Mrs. Harris. But Mrs. Harris just wants a wonderful dress in her life—a dress that she cannot afford—to make her feel happy since she is not finding love with a man.

Lesley Manville and Lambert Wilson workwell together in Mrs. Harris goes to Paris, but throw in Isabelle Huppert and the film’s chemistry is blindsided. The over-the-top focus on the Dior dress in the film is also personification taken too far. Personification works in some films or stories, but in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris it degrades into silly fantasy.

I did find some joy in the film, mostly in the pleasant scenery and some interesting bits of characterization. But overall, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a film that simply let me down. It is dry and devoid of excitement, and it comes off as rather ridiculous and boring. A snoozer, really. I feel this may be a film that goes straight to streaming. Just two stars for Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris.