Review of That's My Boy (2012) by Cinephile69 — 24 May 2022

That's My Boy is probably the best comedy of the 2010s. It's easy to misread this film as being crude and base for its own sake, but such a brilliant screenplay could not emerge accidentally from crudeness and baseness for its own sake.

The fact that That's My Boy is an Adam Sandler movie as opposed to, say, a Wes Anderson film (and this film could very well be adapated into high art through such an auteur, even with the same screenplay), is what makes it so easy to dismiss it as the sharp satire that it is.

Donny Berger is a victim. A victim of an abusive father. A victim of pedophilia. A victim of the celebritization of children whose private lives are broadcast as the media sensation du jour. A victim of an entertainment industry that eats its young and leaves them flat broke. Donny's arrested development manifests itself through his alcoholism, the neglect of his only child, his continued objectification of women, and his fetish for significantly older women, to name just a few. Such extreme trauma is, of course, more than acceptable to consume so long as the audience is spoonfed that these are all bad things that can be absolved through audience tears and, more importantly, guilt. That's My Boy breaks from this liberal orthodoxy by being brave enough to present these heavy topics to offend rather than to satisfy the egos of viewers who believe it is virtuous to feel bad when they watch traumatic content.

Todd Peterson, or Han Solo Berger, was raised by a child who was wholly unprepared for the responsibilities of parenthood. As a result of the practically inevitable neglect, he chased value through unfulfilling means: careerism and a woman who clearly doesn't love him. His boss, Steve Spirou, is a hilarious caricature of an unscrupulous hedge fund manager. What makes Tony Orlando's performance as Steve so strong is that he is not an explicit villain; That's My Boy gives viewers the agency to accept that some characters are bad, but enjoyable, people.

There are sincere, emotional moments between Donny and his son that show a repentant father who is genuinely sorry for the harm he's caused. That such a tone shift is executed well in a comedy as outrageous as this is no small feat. Indeed, at a nearly 2 hour runtime, its pacing is masterful.

Other themes subverted irreverently are incest and the deficiation of militarism. While most films that deal with these topics would at least provide the comfort of dramatic effect, audience members are not given the privilege of being blanketed by their tears or guilt. These too are fair game for comedy.

What makes That's My Boy so special is that it dares to make you laugh. The themes and topics in this film could easily be rearranged into Oscar-bait. Instead, we get riotous laughs. There is no shortage of low brow humor in That's My Boy, but that doesn't make it a tasteless movie. If That's My Boy is tasteless, than so is Precious. But one film won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The other won the Razzie for Worst Screenplay. Make of that what you will.