Film
Daddy Longlegs
A father reunites with his young sons for two weeks in a cramped New York apartment. What follows is a portrait of parental uncertainty: Lenny oscillates between authority and abdication, between protecting and enabling, as the boys spiral into increasing chaos. It's awkward, funny, uncomfortable, and painfully honest about the gap between wanting to be a good parent and actually knowing how.
If you liked this
The Florida Project2017
Shows childhood as experienced by kids—joyful, inventive, morally uncomplicated—while the adult world crumbles invisibly around them. Both films trust children's perspective and refuse easy sentiment.
But Slow and observational. It asks you to sit with discomfort rather than resolve it. Some find this style pretentious; others find it exhausting.

Eighth Grade2018
Bo Burnham captures parental anxiety and the gulf between wanting connection and not knowing how to build it. Painfully specific about modern awkwardness and the comedy hiding inside real pain.
But The cringe humour lands differently depending on your relationship to secondhand embarrassment. It's also relentlessly interior and introspective.

A Ghost Story2017
An unconventional meditation on time, parenting, legacy, and whether we're ever really present with the people we love. Haunting without being supernatural about it.
But Deliberately paced and abstract. The premise sounds gimmicky but the film earns its strangeness. Not everyone wants to sit with that kind of ambiguity.

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The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Come and See1985
Both films refuse to shield children from consequences. They show childhood as vulnerable exposure rather than protected innocence, and both are uncompromising in that vision.
A Soviet masterpiece about a boy's innocence destroyed by war. It's a mirror from a different country and era, but shares Daddy Longlegs' unflinching look at how children absorb chaos around them, and what that does to them.
But Brutally difficult. It's not a film you enjoy; it's one that hollows you out. Violence, suffering, and trauma are portrayed without sentiment. Emotionally devastating in ways that feel punitive.

More like this (8)
Before Sunrise1995
Linklater's obsession with real conversation and failed connections runs through both. Long scenes of people trying and failing to say what they mean, to be what they need to be.
But The entire runtime is essentially two people talking. If dialogue-heavy minimalism feels like homework to you, this will test your patience.

Boyhood2014
Twelve years, one boy, no shortcuts. It asks the same question as Daddy Longlegs: what does time and presence actually do to a person? How do we become ourselves?
But Three hours and requires real attention. Some see it as ambitious cinema; others see it as showing off. The middle stretches test commitment.

Manchester by the Sea2016
Kenneth Lonergan writes men who can't say what they feel, who fail at fatherhood and brotherhood through absence and paralysis. The pain is quiet and accumulated, not dramatic.
But Grief moves at glacial pace. If you want emotional catharsis or resolution, this film denies you both. It's about carrying weight, not setting it down.

You Can Count on Me2000
Kenneth Lonergan again—siblings who love and hurt each other, bound by childhood neglect and unmet needs. Funny and devastating about how we repeat what was done to us.
But Small, intimate, dialogue-driven. The emotional payoff is internal. Some viewers want bigger stakes or plot momentum.

Moonlight2016
Three chapters of a life, each showing how presence (or absence) of one person shapes everything. It's about unconditional connection in the midst of pain—the best and saddest thing.
But Very slow, very quiet, very sad. Some find it beautiful; others find it too spare to emotionally connect with. Not everyone responds to visual poetry as narrative.

Krisha2016
Ari Aster's debut features his own family playing themselves in a story about parenting, addiction, and the impossible weight of hope. Raw and unpolished in ways that feel radical.
But Shot on digital video with non-professional actors. It looks like a home video at times, which some read as intimate and others as amateurish. The ending divides people sharply.

Kung Fu Hustle2004
Both celebrate a kind of joyful transgression—the idea that breaking the rules can be bonding, even redemptive. But where Daddy Longlegs makes you anxious about it, Kung Fu Hustle makes you laugh.
Stephen Chow's film is anarchic physical comedy where characters love chaos and abandon. Lenny finds parenting through play and lawlessness; this film is pure pleasure in that anarchic energy. Same permission structure, completely different register.
But Cartoonish and over-the-top. If you come to it looking for realism or dramatic weight, it reads as silly and forgettable. Tonal whiplash if you're expecting grounded storytelling.

A Prophet2009
Both are about the transformative power of being trapped with someone. In prison or an apartment, both films show how intimacy (desired or not) rewires who we become.
A young man's education in a closed system, learning to survive by reading people and navigating impossible relationships. Like Daddy Longlegs, it's about vulnerability becoming strength through proximity and uneven bonds.
But Set in a French prison. Bleak, violent in places, and deliberately paced. The moral universe is grey. If you need characters to be sympathetic, this will frustrate you.

People
Cast
Ronald BronsteinLenny- Alex GreenblattAlex
Sage RanaldoSage Sokol- Frey RanaldoFrey Sokol

Lee RanaldoStepfather
Abel FerraraRobber
Van NeistatBoat Driver
Dakota GoldhorRoberta
Josh SafdieChris
Casey NeistatCat Burgler
Directing
- Benny SafdieDirector
- Josh SafdieDirector
Writing
- Benny SafdieWriter
- Josh SafdieWriter
- Ronald BronsteinWriter
Production
- Charles MerzbacherAssociate Producer
- Eléonore HendricksAssociate Producer
- Matthew Davis WalkerAssociate Producer
- Benny SafdieCo-Producer
- Brett JutkiewiczCo-Producer
- Josh SafdieCo-Producer
- Michel ZanaCo-Producer
- Sam LisencoCo-Producer
- Sophie DulacCo-Producer
- Zachary TreitzCo-Producer
- Andy SpadeExecutive Producer
- Casey NeistatProducer
- Tom ScottProducer
- Zachary TreitzProduction Supervisor