While just as stressful as later films by the Safdie Brothers like Good Time and Uncut Gems, their first major indie feature, Daddy Longlegs (2009) is also gentler in a way. It focuses on a dad played by their future co-writer and editor Ronald Bronstein (also a director of the indie Frownland) and his performance is so great, radiating a distinct New York obnoxiousness muddled with traces of charm. The film just observes the calamity as he takes his two sons for a fortnight, running around with them from school, indulging in games and play. Yet he also seems to carry on with his chaotic life, working odd hours as a projectonist, not thinking twice about going out while his sons are asleep and picking someone up in a bar, and then in what I thought was the funniest sequence, crashing that one night’s stand’s trip up-state with their boyfriend so he can have a day trip with his kids free of charge. Definitely a film cut from the cloth of Cassavetes. Also stars Eleonore Hendricks as the dad’s girlfriend, Leah Singer as the ex-wife and mother (their actual mother along with a cameo from the boys’ actual dad, Lee Ranaldo from Sonic Youth), and even a cameo from Abel Ferrara, the scuzzball auteur of Bad Lieutenant and King Of New York, as a street mugger. There are stressful scenes of Ronald Bronstein’s character messing up or getting aggressive towards other adults, but in the end, there is empathy for such a loser, and from the Safdies’ opening dedication to their own Dad, seems to be borne from experience and understanding. Recommended.
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