Bryce Dallas Howard makes her directorial debut with Dads.
Directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, Dads is an Apple TV+ documentary that celebrates fatherhood. Making her directorial debut, this appears to be Bryce’s attempt at honouring her father, filmmaker Ron Howard.
The film opens with home videos of the Howard family, and it gives the impression that this is going to be a personal diary of sorts. Then, we are introduced to celebrity dads like Will Smith, Jimmy Fallon, Hasan Minhaj, Neil Patrick Harris among others as they take the stage and talk about their fatherhood experiences against bright walls. I mention the walls because visually that’s the most striking part of this documentary.
Dads is a 80-minute documentary film that collects experiences of fathers from different ethnicities and cultures. We meet fathers from Brazil, Japan, USA, and the men here don’t shy away from talking about being stay-at-home fathers who chose this life because of their love for their child. As the documentary digs deep into each story, we are constantly reminded of the societal expectations from a father. The pre-defined gender roles that are assumed by a large part of our society don’t value the role of a father in a child’s formative years and the men here, come ready to debunk that theory.
As the fathers here spoke of gender roles, I started thinking about the 1979 film Kramer vs Kramer, which spoke of evolving gender roles back in the day. Looks like 41 years later, we are still trying to evolve and be okay with a father taking care of the child.
Dads tries to portray everyday fathers as heroes, but their stories appear like punctuations as we keep going back to rehearsed celebrity conversations. They try to narrate honest experiences, but it ends up looking extremely staged. The film’s best moments come from the lived experiences of everyday fathers who are changing diapers and fighting to get paternity leave that is more than five days.
Since the film opens and closes with the Howard family experience, and we get to see some part of it getting translated to the next generation as well, I kind of wished that the Howards were the backbone of this story. There is a personal touch to it, but it is so cosmetic that you don’t really feel like you are a part of it.
At 1-hour-20-minutes, the documentary is a little too lengthy. Dads doesn’t require your undivided attention, but if you are planning to do something with your Dad this Father’s Day, watching this sweet documentary wouldn’t be such a bad idea.