Daddy Issues

Daddy is one of my least favourite words in the English language. It makes me uncomfortable to hear a word often used by children co-opted into a sexy thing. I don’t mean to yuck anyone’s yums. This isn’t kink shaming, this is just my personal reaction to the word. When I hear the word Daddy not spoken by a child, I gag a little bit. So why, you might ask did I watch a film called Daddy Issues, which features a character in a sugar baby relationship with a man who likes to be called Daddy? I don’t have a good answer for that. Morbid curiosity and self hatred, I guess. With all this being said, imagine my surprise when Daddy Issues turned out to be not bad.

The film focuses on the relationships of two deeply Gen Z women. The first is Maya. Maya has a pastel aesthetic and is an artist. Her dream is to go to art school in Italy though her mother and step father openly laugh at the idea and don’t support her. Maya has a massive crush on a local Instagram celebrity named Jasmine. Jasmine is a clothing designer. However, most of Jasmine’s current income comes from a 6 year long relationship with her Sugar Daddy, Simon. Maya ends up following Jasmine to a party and much to her delight, Jasmine takes an interest in her. The two begin dating. For Maya, she is head over heels but for Jasmine, it is more casual as she is already in a longer term relationship with Simon. Also, plot twist! Simon is actually Maya’s real, absentee father. So that’s awkward.

The biggest problem with Daddy Issues is that it tries so hard to be youthful it ends up rather obnoxious. There’s constant barrage of pop and rap songs playing over scenes that definitely sound like the kind of thing young people might listen to, but not in a complimentary sense. The characters themselves in both personality and aesthetic can end up being a little too obnoxious too. This is definitely not a film that a 40 year old man would like; he would find it irritating and these characters entitled. But even for someone who’s basically in the age range this movie depicts, I still find the characters a bit much. There are definitely 20-somethings like this, but they’re the ones I personally would avoid at all costs.

Much as Daddy Issues‘ lead characters can be annoying, one thing the film is really good about is giving psychological backing for the reason they are Like This. Maya has attachment issues because her father abandoned her. Jasmine’s mother is a manic bipolar who Jasmine spends more time parenting than the other way around. Simon himself engages in this Sugar Daddy relationship at least partially to fill the void in his life because he can’t see his daughter. Simon additionally has his own controlling, judgmental father which makes him desire to be in a position of control himself. Daddy Issues has some decently written characters that are more than one layer deep. They’ve clearly questioned what a character’s motivation for acting this way is and have added that reason into the script in a way that doesn’t feel like an info dump.

So, Daddy Issues is actually decently written. It’s also pretty well directed. Yes, relies too much on fancy tricks and visual aesthetic which sometimes plays into this movie feeling obnoxious. But none of said fancy tricks are poorly executed. And the film absolutely has a vision and the skill to realize that vision. While Daddy Issues’ reliance on montage and a mixture of slo-mo and sped up footage isn’t my favourite, it doesn’t feel out of place for the film. Daddy Issues is a highly aesthetic film. While your mileage may vary for how much you enjoy that aesthetic, you can’t say that it was executed poorly. If it was, the aesthetic wouldn’t have come across quite so loud and clear.

Rounding out my surprise of wow, this movie is actually pretty good was the acting. The film requires its actors to do comedy and explosive drama, sometimes in the same scenes. And its trio of leads is all successful at this. By a tiny amount, the scene stealer is Montana Manning as Jasmine. She has that real “it” factor that makes me absolutely believe she’d be an Instagram celebrity. She actually reminds me of Zendaya which is a pretty high compliment.

The movie does end somewhat unsatisfactorily. Neither Jasmine nor Simon really get a good wrap-up. Maya does, which is something. But even there, much as her story felt complete as she finally got to go to art school, her relationship with Simon is left unresolved. He pays for her to go to art school and that’s that. All the years of neglect and this whole situation of them having sex with the same woman is solved because he threw money at the problem, I guess. That’s not wholly satisfactory to me.

Deeply youthful and leaning heavily into aesthetic, Daddy Issues is not going to be for everyone. But it is definitely a movie that had a complete vision and executed that vision pretty well. As a film, it feels youthful, fresh and full of energy. For a young person who’s not deathly allergic to the word daddy like I am, they might actually really like this movie. Or they might find it beyond annoying. Whatever individual reaction to this film is, it doesn’t change the fact that there’s a lot more talent in this film than I expected.

Overall rating: 5.9/10

Other WLW films in similar genres