Magnolia Pictures has released the first full-length trailer for “I Love My Dad,” a new movie shot in Syracuse by Liverpool-based American High.
Patton Oswalt stars as a hopelessly estranged father who catfishes his son (writer-director James Morosini) in an attempt to reconnect. The preview teases some cringe comedy moments, such as when Morosini sexts Oswalt while thinking he’s talking to a beautiful woman named “Becca” (Claudia Sulewski).
“Internet kiss your son,” Lil Rel Howery says, encouraging Oswalt’s character. “Do you love him? ... Then kiss him already!”
“I Love My Dad,” also starring Rachel Dratch (“Saturday Night Live”), Ricky Velez (“The King of Staten Island”), and Amy Landecker (“Doctor Strange”), was filmed in the Syracuse area in 2021, including at the Salt City Market, The Western Ranch Motor Inn, and Carl’s Kountry Kitchen. Sulewski, a popular YouTuber whose credits include Marvel’s “Runaways,” stirred up excitement when her boyfriend Finneas O’Connell, the Grammy-winning songwriter-producer best known for his work with his sister Billie Eilish, visited her in Syracuse during filming.
“I know everyone says this, but it really felt like camp,” Sulewski told Nylon of the production. “There is this family dynamic, and that has been the most fulfilling thing for me because coming from YouTube, everything is independently done.”
The film won the narrative feature competition at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, and was acquired by Magnolia Pictures.
“I Love My Dad” will be released in theaters Aug. 5 and on demand Aug. 12.
American High’s Jeremy Garelick, Will Phelps and Ryan Bennett serve as executive producers; Bill Stertz and Sean King O’Grady are producing for Atlas Industries alongside Dane Eckerle, Daniel Brandt and Burn Later Productions’ Phil Keefe and Sam Slater. Lauren Hantz and John Hantz are executive producers through Hantz Motion Pictures, which fully financed the project.
“I Love My Dad” is one of 14 movies shot in Central New York by American High, which is headquartered at Syracuse Studios (the former Liverpool high school and A.V. Zogg Middle School), in less than five years. Other American High titles include “Crush,” “Sex Appeal,” “Plan B,” “The Binge,” “Big Time Adolescence,” “Looks That Kill,” “The Ultimate Playlist of Noise,” “Holly Slept Over” and “Banana Spit,” along with the upcoming releases “Miguel Wants to Fight,” “Sid is Dead,” “Empire Waist” and “The Binge 2: It’s a Wonderful Binge.”
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