Casa de mi Padre
I had a bit of a daytime-drunk going on, courtesy of Smirnoff, and I still barely cracked a smile. (Of course, prior to the feature they showed the trailer for Bully, which reduced me to a sniveling mess; that’ll fuck with any buzz.) In my experience, low expectations paired with alcohol essentially guarantees a hit—I friggin’ loved Pirate Radio.
At his best, I love Will Ferrell. I adore Nick Offerman, and Gael y Diego secured a place in my heart ages ago. On paper, this was a solid concept. As is the case with so many things this days, the most disappointing thing about Casa de mi Padre is the potential that it had to be a really special and impressive movie.
Gael y Diego had some amusing ridiculous nuances to their characters, but it just wasn’t enough, and Will Ferrell didn’t play up his strengths *nearly* enough. The story ended up feeling way too heavy-handed, and there are only so many times you can laugh at the obvious fakeness of a big ol’ white cat (in my case it was zero).
There were some scenes that were absolutely gorgeous and had very striking and beautiful subtlety. (Shit just went down, white dress, guy to the left smoking—best part of the entire movie.) If they had gone with those rich visuals for the entire film and tweaked the humor to be more silly and surprising, the juxtaposition would have been nothing short of a triumph.
