''Daddy'' is an American
comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
film, released in 2015. The directorial debut of
Gerald McCullouch
Gerald McCullouch (born March 30, 1967) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is best known for playing Bobby Dawson on ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation''.
Biography
Early life
McCullouch, an Irish-American, was born in Huntsville, Alabama. ...
, the film is based on the play by
Dan Via.
The film stars McCullouch and Via as Colin McCormack and Stewart Wisniewski, two
gay men
Gay men are male homosexuals. Some bisexual and homoromantic men may also dually identify as gay, and a number of young gay men also identify as queer. Historically, gay men have been referred to by a number of different terms, including ' ...
in their late 40s. Longtime friends whose relationship has taken on many of the emotional undercurrents and routines of a non-sexual marriage, their bond is tested when Colin begins dating a younger man (
Jaime Cepero).
The film's cast also includes Brooke Anne Smith, Jay Jackson,
Tamlyn Tomita
Tamlyn Naomi Tomita (born January 27, 1966) is a Japanese-American actress and singer. She made her screen debut as Kumiko in ''The Karate Kid Part II'' (1986) and reprised the character for the streaming series ''Cobra Kai'' (2021). She is also ...
, Scott Henry,
John Rubinstein
John Rubinstein (born December 8, 1946) is an American actor, composer and director.
Early life
Rubinstein is the son of Polish parents. His mother, Aniela (née Młynarska), a dancer and writer, was a Roman Catholic native of Warsaw, the dau ...
,
Mackenzie Astin
Mackenzie Alexander Astin (born May 12, 1973) is an American actor.
Early and personal life
Astin was born on May 12, 1973, in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Patty Duke and actor John Astin. His brother is actor Sean Astin. He at ...
,
Richard Riehle
Richard Riehle (born May 12, 1948) is an American character actor. He portrayed Walt Finnerty on ''Grounded for Life'' (2001–2005) and The Warden on ''The Young and the Restless'' (2007). He also appeared in over 200 films, including '' Glory'' ...
and
Leslie Easterbrook
Leslie Easterbrook is an American actress and producer. She played Sgt./Lt./Capt. Debbie Callahan in the ''Police Academy'' films and Rhonda Lee on the television series ''Laverne & Shirley''.
Early life
Easterbrook was adopted when she was nin ...
.
Plot
Colin McCormack (Gerald McCullouch) is a 50-something openly gay male politically liberal columnist for a prominent newspaper. Stewart Wisniewski (Dan Via) is a 50-something mostly closeted gay male who works for a prominent law firm. The two have known one another most of their lives, and have formed a marriage in all but name. They live next door to one another, eat meals together, spend their free time together, and are deeply emotionally intimate but not sexually involved with one another. Colin pursues handsome young men in their 20s for sex.
Thaddeus "Tee" Bloom (Jaime Cepero) is a 21-year-old gay African American college student who has won an internship at Colin's newspaper. He apparently idolizes Colin. The two feel a mutual attraction, and after a night of heavy drinking begin sleeping with one another. Their relationship becomes intensely emotional, and Colin begins to feel he might partner with Tee. Tee has discovered that Colin is his father as a result of a sperm donation he made when he was a college student. Tee's intense desire to know his father led him to commit incest with Colin.
The revelation of Tee's parentage forces Colin to reconcile the competing values and dreams in his life.
Background
McCullouch and Via starred in the original stage production of ''Daddy'', which was staged in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
in 2010. The film adaptation was funded in part by a
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
campaign in 2013.
According to Via, the play and film were inspired by the "
daddy
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...
" phenomenon in the gay dating scene, as well as a desire to explore the effects of the contemporary normalization of
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...
on older gay men who had been raised to believe that marriage and family were not available to them, and who thus built their own alternative models of family and social connection.
"Dan Via Wrote and Stars in Daddy, But It’s Not A Manifesto"
''Brooklyn the Borough'', February 3, 2010.
See also
*
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, 3522530, Daddy
2015 films
2015 comedy-drama films
American comedy-drama films
American LGBT-related films
2015 LGBT-related films
LGBT-related comedy-drama films
American films based on plays
Kickstarter-funded films
Films about incest
2010s English-language films
2010s American films