Daddy Longlegs

Daddy Longlegs is a 2009 American comedy-drama film directed by Josh and Benny Safdie. It stars Ronald Bronstein, Sage Ranaldo, and Frey Ranaldo. It tells the story of a divorced projectionist and his two sons. The film had its world premiere under the title Go Get Some Rosemary in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2009. It was released in the United States on May 14, 2010. Plot Lenny, a divorced father and a projectionist at a Manhattan movie theater, gets custody of his sons Sage and Frey for two weeks of the year. During these two weeks he encourages a playful attitude in the boys while largely acting irresponsibly. Lenny behaves obnoxiously and argues openly with other adults—including their school principal and a homeless panhandling veteran—in front of his sons, often involving them in the conversations as he enjoys setting up various improvised "games" with them. Lenny is aided in caring for the boys by his similarly irresponsible on-and-off girlfriend Leni. Early in the two weeks, Leni brings the boys a gift of a salamander, which is promptly forgotten about and starves to death. On his first weekend with the boys, Lenny goes out drinking and hooks up with a girl named Roberta. Learning that Roberta is about to travel upstate the next morning with her boyfriend, Lenny impulsively decides to accompany them, bringing his sons along as well. Back home, they are visited by Lenny's European friend Salvie, who is hard to understand and plays a dangerous game where he stands on the boys' stomachs. Lenny has a scheduling mixup at his job, working a shift when he was supposed to pick the kids up from school. He solves this problem by changing a reel then running on foot to the school and keeping the kids at the theater with him. There, they draw a comic about Lenny peeing in his boss's water cup and print 999 copies. In order to make time for a date with Leni, Lenny hires his neighbor Jake to watch the kids for a night. The date ends badly when Leni decides to walk along the subway rails and Lenny refuses to join her. Meanwhile, Sage and Frey insert pee into a toy firetruck and shoot it at Jake, who tells Lenny he will no longer watch his kids when he gets back. Leni returns to Lenny's apartment to make up with him just as he gets a call from his boss, who needs him to work overnight and threatens to fire him for the incident with the printer.