Film Review: Will Ferrell Experiments with Surreal ‘Casa de mi Padre’

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CHICAGO – Will Ferrell can never be accused of sitting on his comic laurels, nor repeating himself. “Casa de mi Padre” is a complete set-in-Mexico Spanish language film, including Ferrell’s dialogue. Although uneven, it delivers such a peculiar vibe that it can’t help but be admired, at least for the effort.

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 3.5/5.0
Rating: 3.5/5.0

Essentially a Mexican film satire of the 1960s and ‘70s – think late night on a Spanish language TV station – it exposes the filmmakers particular obsession with the narrow genre, but it’s such a noble endeavor and delivers enough freakish laughs to be interesting, if not downright intriguing. Everything that is loved and made fun of in those old Mexican films are honored, most especially the difficulties in story continuity that those guerrilla filmmakers of the era seemed never to get right. What took them five crew members and an editing bay, took “Casa de mi Padre” a huge movie star and a 15 minute credit roll to recreate.

Will Ferrell is Armando, the son of his father (Pedro Armendáriz Jr.), who lives in the titular house. His revelry for the land and his father’s pastures is interrupted by the return of the prodigal son, his brother Raul (Diego Luna). There is something suspicious about his sibling, but nothing wrong with Raul’s beautiful fiance Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez), who forms an instant mutual admiration with Armando.

The impression regarding Raul turns to darkness, as it is revealed that he is associated with a drug lord named Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal), who is being pursued by DEA officials led by Agent Parker (Nick Offerman). This distresses Armando, but when he interrupts the wedding rehearsal dinner with his suspicions, he is banished from Sonia and Raul’s nuptials by his father. Onza uses that ceremony to exact his revenge, and Armando is called back to the Casa to try and fix the very difficult dilemma.

“Casa de mi Padre” opens everywhere on March 16th. Featuring Will Ferrell, Gael Garcia Bernal, Genesis Rodriguez, Diego Luna, Nick Offerman and Pedro Armendáriz Jr. Screenplay by Andrew Steele. Directed by Matt Piedmont. Rated “R”

StarContinue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Casa de mi Padre”

Power Couple: Genesis Rodriguez (Sonia) and Will Ferrell (Armando) in ‘Casa de mi Padre’
Power Couple: Genesis Rodriguez (Sonia) and Will Ferrell (Armando) in ‘Casa de mi Padre’
Photo credit: John Estes for Pantelion Films

StarContinue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Casa de mi Padre”

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