Classic Movie Review: Daddy Longlegs

Daddy Longlegs (2009)

Directed by: Joshua & Benny Safdie.

Written by: Joshua & Bnny Safdie and Ronald Bronstein.

Starring: Ronald Bronstein (Lenny), Alex Greenblatt (Alex), Sag Ranaldo (Sage Sokol), Frey Ranaldo (Frey Sokol), Victor Puccio (Principal Puccio), Eleonore Hendricks (Leni), Sean Williams (Dale), Dakota O’Hare (Roberta), Firas Al-Ramahi (Firas), Larry Pelton (Terry), Miranda LaPrelle (Miranada).

 

Lenny, the main character of the Safdies debut film Daddy Longlegs, will undeniably remind you of the characters at the heart of their Good Time and Uncut Gems. He is just as manic as both of them – always on the move, always just trying to stay ahead of whatever is behind him as he stalks the streets of New York. Lenny isn’t a criminal though – although like those later Safdie films, you are in constant fear of just what Lenny is going to do next. He’s a middle aged screw-up – works as a movie projectionist at a rundown theater, who cannot seem to do anything right. You may even be fooled into thinking he is a lovable loser – except for the fact that almost the entire movie is set during the two-week period every year when Lenny has to watch his two young sons – Safe and Frey, who are probably about 9 and 7. His ex-wife still lets him do every year – but you get the impression that it will be ending sooner rather than later. If Lenny was just a screw-up, no big deal – but as he keeps parenting his kids, you worry something awful is always about to happen.

 

Lenny is played by Ronald Bronstein, and it’s pretty much his entire acting career. He continues to work with the Safdies as a co-writer and a co-editor, and has directed the acclaimed Frownland. It is a brilliant performance – every bit as integral to the success of Daddy Longlegs as the performances by Arielle Holmes in Heaven Knows What, Robert Pattinson in Good Time or Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems. This was a personal film for the Safdies – based on their own experiences (they are essentially Frey and Sage) – and perhaps because they are so close with Bronstein, they are able to capture something about Lenny that is hard to describe. The film is subtle in its shift of perspectives – there are times when we see them through the eyes. They love their dad, and it’s exciting to be in his orbit. It’s also scary – and for the same reasons – you never really know what he’s going to do next – you never know who goings to come over, where you’re going to end up, or what you’ll be doing. Sometimes, you head out for fun, sometimes your dad inadvertently over drugs you and you’re passed out for 2 days.

 

The Cassavetes influence, which continues until today with the Safdies, is perhaps the most pronounced here. This is the Safdies on the street level, stealing shots when they can, and get all the action from the streets of New York playing out in the background – people going through their own little dramas as Lenny goes through his. Cassavetes also would have loved a character like Lenny – a larger than life, manic character who would fit right in films like A Woman Under the Influence or Love Streams.

 

What the Safdies really capture here is what it’s like to be around someone like Lenny. It’s not surprising that he has a lot of friends – everyone seems to like Lenny. It’s also not surprising that not many of them seem to be that close of friends – and that many of them get to the point where they have to pull away from him. His new, younger girlfriend, Leni, eventually gets there – you can see it in the way she examines him at a Chinese restaurant when they’re out to dinner, and he tries to explain what he’s going through by taking rapid sips of cold soda and hot tea back and forth. You can see it with his ex-wife, who has basically just had it with Lenny, and almost cannot believe she’s stuck in his orbit forever because of the boys. Or the doctor who comes to his house when the boys are drugged – who is none too pleased to get there. Or the friend who is supposed to help Lenny move – until he sees the boys there as well. Everyone likes Lenny – but everyone tires of Lenny at the same time. It’s exhausting to be around him.

 

But the film also shows how exhausting it must be to be Lenny at the same time. He’s a man always in crisis – and even if that crisis is always his own doing, it’s still exhausting to there at that level, at all times. In retrospect, there was something about the Safdies right from the start. This isn’t quite as polished as Uncut Gems or Good Time, and not quite as raw as Heaven Knows What. But it’s a real film – a deeply felt one, and one that shows just what they would go on to become.