It's okay to cry in this movie. I know I certainly did. And I'm not ashamed.
Writer and director Tracie Laymon's semiautobiographical film **BOB TREVINO LIKES IT** is a moving story about father/daughter relationships and the search for meaningful connections.
Barbie Ferreira plays Lily Trevino, a single, 20-something carrying years of emotional baggage, suppressed under her people-pleasing smile and easy-going demeanor. French Stewart (who is galaxies away from his 3rd Rock From the Sun days) plays sexagenarian Robert Trevino, father to Lily, a self-absorbed and insecure man who clearly is a toxic influence on his daughter's life.
When Lily upsets her father's unreasonable expectations of her, she mistakenly befriends someone on Facebook who shares her father's name -- Bob Trevino (played by John Leguizamo in what could be a career-best).
What starts out as a case of mistaken identity, soon blossoms into a genuine friendship between Lily and her surrogate new father, Bob. **BOB TREVINO LIKES IT** is not a story of Catfishing -- but rather an uplifting example of genuine friendship and no-strings attached kindness.
So rare a thing is the theme of kindness (which, according to James Gunn's new **SUPERMAN**, is the new punk rock) -- that as a viewer I waited for the other shoe to drop, for the purity of a loving and supportive human connection to be undermined by some lurid or ulterior motive from Lily or Bob.
What a relief, as the powerful ending unfolded, to discover that this wonderful film (that presents kindness as the antidote for loneliness) can believably convey that there still are no-strings-attached goodness in the world today worth celebrating.
Leguizamo is a triumph as the fatherly, somewhat avuncular Bob who surprises in a role that is a departure from his usual work. Leguizamo feels genuine, sincere, supportive -- all the things missing from Lily's life with her own father.
Ferreira equally shines as the longsuffering daughter aching to have a loving connection with her father -- that ultimately cannot come to pass. But as her friendship with Leguizamo's Bob grows -- I found myself genuinely happy and rooting for her to finally receive some fatherly love wherever she can find it.
Laymon’s film is a triumph of optimism, hope and everything worth living for. Highly, highly recommend this new film streaming now on HULU.
Don't miss it. One of the best of 2025.
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