Like Father Like Son
is a deeply flawed film that avoids redeeming qualities in the story or characters in favor of sensationalized violence. While several notable stars appear in the film, which was written and directed by Barry Jay, none of them manage to deliver likable, engaging, or believable characters. Instead, from start to finish, the movie feels like a half-baked idea which never had time to be refined or improved.

Like Father Like Son opens up with a middle-aged father brutally killing a teenager for bullying a random child. After calling the police on his father, Eli tries to make a life for himself and get past his father’s murderous actions, but he finds himself constantly thinking about his father. Then, he goes on to become violent and brutal, just like his dad, as life continues to pᴀss him by.

Nothing In Like Father, Like Son Makes Sense

While the plot on its surface appears to be simple, and potentially even engaging, the execution leads to complete and total confusion and dysfunction. Eli hates his father for being a monster, but his pent-up anger pushes him to be a violent and short-tempered man just like him. This cycle of abuse is well-documented and makes perfect sense. However, the movie makes the bizarre choice to frame both Eli and his father as sort of vigilante heroes. Except, their vigilante justice is doled out to targets who are merely annoying or slightly mean.

It appears that Eli’s father, Gabe, played by Dermot Mulroney, was always good to his son. But he feels justified in killing, including a teenage bully. Then, as Eli begins to embrace his dark side, he also makes violent and extreme choices, doling out his brand of justice to people who range from actual monsters to others, who, again, are only just rude. The result is central characters who have no redeeming qualities, and who I fail to connect with. But beyond that, every other character is similarly unlikable.

On top of the awful cyclical character arcs, the way the story is edited — with flashes forward and back constantly littering the runtime — feels completely out of its depth in trying to tell a story and utterly fails to communicate anything sensible or meaningful. And things only continue to get worse, weirder, and more frustrating as the movie goes on.

Like Father Like Son Exhausts All Of Its Good Will

Having a low budget does not excuse the abysmal quality of Like Father Like Son. With several notable actors in the film, including Mulroney, Ariel Winter, Mayim Bialik, and Vivica A. Fox, the movie neglects to capitalize on their talents, and their presence simply highlights the surrounding inexperience. Dylan Flashner puts in a good effort to play the lead role as Eli, but in all honesty, the film’s lack outweighs anything and anyone else.

With a foundation that could have been made into something worthwhile, it feels like a terrible waste that this is the outcome. The film is confusing in terms of messages about violence, which it simultaneously appears to abhor and uphold, and aimless, as seen by the movie’s struggle to move through time and progress from one scene to the next in an effective way. Like Father Like Son lacks a punch despite the thriller genre, and the results are a muddled frenzy of violence and frustration.