US comedian Bill Burr takes on Generation Y, the Millennials, in the new movie “Old Dads” on Netflix, addressing the soft and overly correct zeitgeist. However, even his “Boomer” friends don’t seem particularly happy.
This is what Old Dads is about: Jack Kelly became a father at 46, is now 51, and his second child is on the way. Because of his 5-year-old son, he constantly has to deal with 30-something parents who have very different views on the world, proper behavior, and parenting than he does.
Actually, his life has gone excellently up to this point: He has built a company with 2 childhood friends, Connor and Mike, that sells retro jerseys; he loves his wife, his son, and everyone seems to have more or less adjusted to his occasional outbursts of anger. Of course, he is driven to fury by scooter riders who yell “Share the road” while blocking the street – but what can you do?
The majority of the film’s highlights have already been showcased in the trailer:
To finance his son’s private school, the three friends have sold their cool company and are now meeting a 30-year-old boss who, upon greeting, fires everyone over 35. Other cracks seem to suddenly open up in the men’s lives:
- Jack clashes with the director of the ultra-woke kindergarten, who gently informs him that she considers him an outdated Neanderthal, forcing him with a cold smile to undergo various humiliating rituals.
- The aging heartthrob Connor (Bobby Cannavale) is under the thumb of his wife and dreams of being so cool that he can have a conversation with young Black people that isn’t totally embarrassing. But who can be cool when his wife commands him with a snap of her fingers?
- Mike (Bokeem Woodbine) seems to have his ducks in a row: He has 2 kids in college, is divorced, and is with a much younger, much hotter woman who suddenly tells him she’s pregnant. But he already had a vasectomy a long time ago.
A comedy show becomes a movie
What makes Old Dads special: If you know and appreciate comedian Bill Burr, you will enjoy the movie as well. Because the film showcases Burr’s comedy works.
In one comedy special, Burr explained that women win arguments with their husbands by provoking them until they slip out the C-word
, a taboo in English. Then they automatically win the argument. This very word puts Jack Kelly in an unsolvable dilemma.
Old Dads
is the fight of a man who loses control over the interpretation of reality and suddenly faces 30-somethings who question everything he believes and finds completely logical – and somehow, he has no good arguments either. Because for 30-somethings, it’s always about feelings, and he can’t deal with feelings.
In the most beautiful scenes of the film, you can feel Jack Kelly’s desperation when Millennials say things like: “I wasn’t there, but I feel incredibly hurt” or “The C-word is the N-word for women.”
How does one say they are still relevant and cool and have something to say when, in the eyes of others, they should slowly make way for the new? Burr lives in constant fear of being the uncle at the family gathering who is somehow embarrassing and whom you better not ask about certain things.
For someone used to saying whatever comes to mind or they might explode, this world is hell:
“You are afraid of getting into trouble, that’s the problem of your whole generation,” his character screams in desperation at one point.
But, as with his comedy specials, you notice that Burr always casts a critical eye on himself and his generation. Because Burr and his peers don’t really come off well: There’s a lot of cowardice on display. Modern things seem totally ridiculous without ever having engaged with them.
Problems are sat through; they always mock the same thing, primarily others, and most difficulties would solve themselves if one could just keep quiet for 3 minutes and swallow their anger. But that’s just not possible.
Ultimately, all other characters besides the three men are somewhat pale: The “30-somethings” are mere caricatures, existing only to say things that drive Burr to fury. Even the partners of the three heroes are only sketched out: The Normal one, the Bitchy one, the Cool one. At least the antagonist, an scheming kindergarten director, is wonderfully passive-aggressive with every sentence.
The highlights of the film are undoubtedly the dialogue scenes where Bill Burr can shine with exactly the comedy his fans have loved him for years: self-observation, sudden outbursts of anger over trivial matters, and a recurring ironic break of what has just been said.
Kelly is pleased that during a trivial argument about whether vaping counts as smoking, a passerby agrees with him. Finally, someone reasonable!
, Kelly seems to think, before the passerby turns out to be an awful racist.
In the story of MeinMMO, we once reported on Bill Burr. A Twitch streamer faced quite a bit of backlash when he repeated a joke from the comedian:
Twitch bans MMO streamer for hateful behavior against women – Lifts ban
