Dads

By: Jennifer Vintzileos

While most of us celebrated Father’s Day by gifting quirky coffee mugs, homemade cards and gift cards for Lowe’s or Home Depot, Bryce Dallas Howard (daughter of Ron Howard) decided to create a documentary honoring our favorite patriarch – Dad. A celebrity and everyday casting of men including some notable faces (Will Smith, Jimmy Fallon, Hasan Minhaj and Conan O’Brien—to name a few), Dads is a proper homage to the men in our life and the ways they have stepped up and evolved in their roles.

From the beginning it’s clear that Bryce Dallas Howard not only gave other fathers a voice in their experiences, but wanted to share her younger brother Reed’s journey into becoming a first-time father. (Spoiler alert: his newborn is adorable.) And the dads don’t disappoint! Initially you are lured in by familiar faces of the entertainment industry, but it is the everyday fathers around the world sharing their stories that truly tug on your heartstrings. Stay-at-home dads (Glen Henry), working fathers who sacrifice everything to provide for their child (Robert Selby), fathers who adopt (Rob & Reece Scheer), those who swap the position of “bread-winner” with their spouses (Shuichi Sakuma) and even those who didn’t have a father figure in their life to show them the way (Thiago Queiroz)—each one is a reminder that no two dads are alike, yet they are ready to demand and give the best to their children. And if Glen Henry’s son proclaiming “Wipe. My. Butt,” or Robert Selby’s son on-camera murmuring, “I love you with all of my fixed heart,” into his ear doesn’t evoke some form of tears, I don’t know what will.

As celebrity dads share their stories of parenthood, the love is palpable. So is the humor, especially when Will Smith compares the responsibility of his foray into fatherhood versus the extensive TV manual he was reading when his wife Jada’s water broke. Or how Jimmy Fallon quips about partially losing his identity as just “Jimmy Fallon” and becoming “Winnie’s Dad.” Jimmy Kimmel gets emotional when talking about his son Billy and how all we wish for as parents are healthy children. Even Hasan Minhaj answering Bryce Dallas Howard’s question of a definition of a father with, “a father is my compass,” the role of dad is a human and emotional one. They’re the superheroes who occasionally need a Kleenex or a reminder that they are doing a great job.

For her directorial debut Bryce Dallas Howard gives the proper respect to the fatherly role. Eventually, she then has the camera turned on her father Ron Howard as he recalls his upbringing with his father, Rance Howard. As Ron remembers wanting to be as good a father as his own, it’s clear that he has raised his own children to aspire to be as great as him, especially with Bryce sitting in the director’s chair.

Ultimately, Dads proves that the patriarchal role has grown and evolved through the years. While in the past it was all about supporting the family in a financial sense, today we’re seeing that fathers also fill the emotional and empathic roles with that same diligence. And they’re still full of the sage advice we seek from our fathers. Ken Jeong reminds us, “Don’t make it perfect, just make it wonderful.” But I really think Will Smith put it best with, “A good gardener helps the seed become what it wants to become, not what the gardener wants it to become. A father is…a master gardener.”

Dads is now available on Apple+ TV.