Father of the Year

By: Maddie Ruby

I have to be honest, I did not have the highest hopes for this movie. Upon seeing the trailer, I judged it as another cringey Netflix “coming of age” comedy with a few ex Nickelodeon and Disney Channel cast members. Fortunately, I was completely wrong. Father of the Year had me laughing the whole movie. There were points when I thought to myself it couldn’t get any funnier and it did. With full confidence, I have to say Father of the Year was one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a while.

The film follows two college graduates Ben and Larry (Joey Bragg and Matt Shively) as they head back to their hometown before moving to New York in the Fall, where Ben has gotten a job. After a drunken discussion about whose father would win in a fight; Larry thinks his dad, clean cut, white picket fence Mardy, (Nat Faxon), would take Ben’s unemployed slob of dad Wayne (David Spade) anyday. Ben decides to tell his father of this discussion, leading Wayne to show up to Larry and Mardy’s house unexpectedly. Wayne decides to go after Mardy, who is not wanting to fight and is actually terrified of Wayne. The “fight” ends with Ben tackling Wayne off the roof to stop him as they fall and break their landing on the neighbor’s shed.

Now, keep in mind this fight only happens about twenty minutes into the movie. When I was watching, I was so confused and I wondered what else would the other hour be about if the main plot already happened once? I was proved wrong once again and the fight scene was really just the beginning of one funny movie. The aftermath of the fight and the subplots took the stage, adding so much more to the movie and keeping me entertained wanting more, even after it was over.

After Ben and Wayne’s epic crash landing into the neighbor’s shed, we see them in a jail cell. Of course, old woman Ruth (Mary Gillis) next door was going to press some kind of charges. This causes Ben’s new job in New York to call and fire him and Wayne to feel disappointment in his son once again. He thinks that if he can get the charges dropped, he might have a shot of getting his job back. Ruth admits she was going to tear down the shed anyways and build a pool. If Ben can do that, she will drop the charges. While dealing with that, Ben is also trying to win back his first ever girlfriend, the tomboy up for anything Meredith (Bridgit Mendler). The movie is filled with laughs, Wayne trying to prove his worth to Ben and make some money through ridiculous activities while Meredith resists Ben every chance she gets, even though we all know she’ll fall for his nerdy self in the end. Then, we have Larry, who was going to New York with Ben for no reason in particular. He is just trying to figure out himself and how he can help Ben build this wretched pool.

As for the actors themselves, it can sometimes be odd to see faces you grew up watching in childhood shows acting in raunchy comedies alongside actors like David Spade and Nat Faxon. Saying that, Joey Bragg, Matt Shively and Bridgit Mendler were phenomenal. They portrayed each of their characters perfectly and the acting was matured and they just flat out did a great job. The fathers did well also with David Spade using a grungy raspy tone to truly portray a deadbeat. Nat Faxon played the perfect dad, abiding by his wife and not encouraging the fight between himself and Wayne. Even the supporting actors had a few lines that made me crack up.

Overall, I would recommend Father of the Year to anyone with a great sense of humour looking for something to make them laugh. I just have to say this, it is so laugh out loud funny that you must watch it with someone else and not in public either. I made the mistake of watching it alone in Starbucks and everytime something funny happened (so basically almost every scene), I was wishing I had one of my friends next to me to laugh as hard as me. Honestly, just writing about it makes me want to go watch it again!