The Reel Review
Abandoned by her self-centered, narcissistic father, a sad, sweet young woman starts to experience joy and self-confidence after befriending a shy, compassionate stranger on social media with the same name as her dad. Barbie Ferreira and John Leguizamo star in this sweet dramedy about chosen family, loosely based on writer/director Tracie Laymon’s own real life experiences.
On the heels of her breakout role in HBO Max’s highly sexualized melodrama series Euphoria, Ferreira shows a remarkable range of emotion and heart as the people-pleasing Lily to Leguizamo’s more nuanced Bob, a lonely, kind-hearted man, who along with an also excellent Tony/Grammy/Emmy award-winning Rachel Bay Jones (Dear Evan Hansen) as his wife, are struggling to process grief over the death of their young son several years prior – him through working weekends, her through scrapbooking. French Stewart (Mom, 3rd Rock from the Sun) also shines as Lily’s loathsome father.
Despite at times veering into eye-rolling schmaltz, with some scenes feeling a bit forced and inauthentic, Bob Trevino Likes It ultimately builds up to a compassionate and heartfelt twist of an ending that will leave most viewers heaving from a huge ugly cry.
REEL FACTS
• Bob Trevino Likes It won both the narrative category Grand Jury Award and Audience Award at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival.
• Tracie Laymon’s story is based on her own experiences meeting a man with the same name as her father while searching for him on Facebook. Although her Bob has passed, Laymon remains friends with his widow and even cast their daughter in the film as the hardware store cashier.
• Bob Trevino Likes It was filmed in and around Louisville, Kentucky.
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