At a recent private screening for award-winning writer/director Laura Holliday’s debut feature film Daddy Issues, I expected to sit through yet another hour and a half romp about millennials and their dysfunctional relationships –but what I came away with instead, was so much more. On the surface, this cute touching story of quirky, 20-something stand-up comedian Henrietta (played by the talented Kimberley Datnow), begins with her distant father’s funeral (get it? Daddy Issues) and soon descends into places that are never expected.In Daddy Issues, Henrietta can no longer face her life in London, then finds out she has inherited her father’s house in LA (where she also attended college), so she decides to make the move back across the pond in an attempt to continue her college life and “escape her problems”. However, Henrietta is quick to realize, that her college friends have now moved on with their own lives. We watch as she spirals into self-destruction mode, sleeping with an endless list of hookups with loser ex-lovers. Henrietta navigates through her world alongside college best friend Alice (Alice Caroll Johnson) and nerdy acquaintance Nolan (Tanner Rittenhouse) and needless to say, the household becomesa metaphor for being “stuck in a rut”. As the film evolves, we start to see each character face their own types of “daddy issues” –but one of the most enjoyable parts to watch is the weird, yet tender relationship between the three lead characters as they struggle with adulthood. This story by Amy Datnow and John Cox is one that people can definitely relate to, with millennials defining adulthood at a different stage and ways from their parents. Daddy Issues explores this topic through the characters and how the relationship with our parents can affect every decision we make, even after they are gone –and the realization that it’s not always for the best, can be a tough one. This dramedy aims to subvert the condescending and oversimplified definition of DaddyIssues and manages to comically and introspectively find humor even in the darkest moments. Our relationships (or lack of relationships) with the people who bring us into this world, inevitably shapes who we are. The important message is: “We can also choose to shape ourselves”
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