Father Never Bothered

Raúl Martínez's 2016 Mexican film follows an old man thrown out of his retirement home who moves in with his son. Servando is old-fashioned and authoritarian; his son lives in a bohemian house among an alternative circle. The collision of the two worlds is the film's comic material. The story does not leave the template: the old man softens, the son understands his father, the family pulls itself together. What holds it up is Héctor Bonilla's performance, building the harshness as a shell and making the fear beneath it visible. It did well at the Mexican box office and sequels followed. The joke structure at times reduces the generational conflict to cliche. Who it's for: viewers who like Latin American family comedy. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a story outside the template, or troubled by generational cliches.