by Finnlay Dall
Worth: $19.98
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Barbie Ferreira, John Leguizamo, French Stewart, Lauren Spencer, Rachel Bay Jones
Intro:
… a dramedy bursting at the seams with emotion.
Bob Trevino Likes It is one of those rare gems. A one in a million film that, despite its low budget, manages to punch above its weight class, producing an expertly funny experience that never compromises on its emotions.
Based loosely on director Tracie Laymon’s real life, the film follows Lily (Barbie Ferreira), a young support worker whose life is crumbling around her. Her boyfriend Thad sends her a text meant for the woman that he’s cheating on her with, her new counsellor needs consoling after hearing just a sliver of her life story and her father, Robert (French Stewart) seems more concerned with setting up his next Tinder date than listening to his daughter whine about her relationship woes.
Ferreira captures the anxiety of a people pleaser to an uncanny degree. She’s able to represent such deep repressed trauma while simultaneously nailing her comedic timing. Downplaying traumatic events with a smile or wiping away tears while sending an “All good :)” text, are moments that give Lily a relatable quality that is neither schmaltzy or patronising.
Despite all her troubles, Lily often finds herself being the one to help others, even if it’s to her own detriment. So, when Robert asks her to be his wingman on yet another date, she has no choice but to say yes. “You gotta make me look good,” he says “…like better than I actually am.” However, because she can’t remember which of the many blondes he’s seeing tonight, and he can’t be bothered to remind her, the date goes horribly. As Lily reasonably fails to hype up her dad, he digs a deeper and deeper hole for himself, all while blaming his daughter’s confusion on a mental episode. Naturally, it’s Lily that he blames for his laughable behaviour. And having become “tired of [her] ruining [his] life”, he decides to go no contact with her for the foreseeable future.
Robert’s stupidity is wonderfully hammed up by Stewart. However, it’s his delivery of some of the more hurtful lines toward Ferreira that really cut deep. One moment the audience is laughing at how well the two actors bounce off each other, and the next they’re squirming in the seats at how cold and distant he is with her. Laymon’s adept writing makes one thing clear: Robert may be a bumbling idiot, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be a selfish monster.
With her dad is not answering his phone, and the Shady Oaks security is threatening to have her arrested, Lily tries to find her dad on Facebook. Adding a pictureless “Bob Trevino” as a friend, she hopes that she might find a way to contact him. But Bob (John Leguizamo) isn’t Robert. He’s an overworked and underpaid safety inspector from Greenville Indiana. Quickly realising that they’re both strangers, she gives up her online search, but when he starts liking her photos and posts, the first and only support she’s received from anyone, she decides to strike up a conversation. And as they begin to share more about their lives online with each other, Bob and Lily form an unlikely friendship.
Leguizamo’s best performance in recent memory, Bob is the father figure most of us wish we had. Handy, introspective and uncompromisingly supportive, he is a role-model, confidant and mentor all rolled into one. Even in the film’s most heated moments, he always manages to stay level-headed. “[When] you care about somebody, you don’t just stop talking to them ‘cause you have a problem… you work it out and you talk it through.” What’s great about Bob is that he’s perfect for Lily, but never flawless. When he finds out that she’s been telling people that he’s her dad, he starts to think of all the women he could have possibly impregnated in his younger years. And while he’s happy to talk it out with strangers, he remains closed off to his wife Jeanie (Rachel Bay Jones), if only in a misguided attempt to be supportive. And his worst crime? Those godawful dad jokes. He’s a wonderful character precisely because he’s not just the perfect dad, he’s also human.
All of this is only possible thanks to Laymon’s incredible skills as a writer. The finesse with which she gives each and every character their own hopes, dreams and insecurities without ever relying on clichés is something to be commended. Take Lily’s relationship with Daphne (Lauren Spencer). As a disabled entrepreneur, she oozes the confidence that Lily wishes she had. Yet, their relationship as client and support worker eats away at her. She tries hard to foster their friendship, but when Lily doesn’t reciprocate, Daphne feels like she treats her as work, rather than a close friend.
Bob Trevino Likes It is a dramedy bursting at the seams with emotion. And thanks to Laymon investing in a universal truth, rather than over-indulging in her own, the audience is given an unfathomable level of catharsis. It’s a film that the real Bob Layton would like very much.
