I Love You, Daddy

"Everything that's difficult," Louis C.K. once said, "you should be able to laugh about." Don't say you weren't warned.

Written, directed, and edited by the comic genius The New York Times called a "stand-up Houdini," I Love You, Daddy features the deft, conceptual acrobatics C.K.'s fans know best, but also a dive into moral hot water guaranteed to raise the temperature of any film lover. This is an edgy comedy pitched partway between the sharp social observation of his Horace and Pete series and the gasp-inducing laughs of his stand-up. And the less you know going in, the better.

As with Horace and Pete, I Love You, Daddy was made in secret, entirely off the film industry grid of development meetings, international financiers, studio production notes, and test screenings. It is pure, unfiltered Louis C.K., and shows him to be a ruthless observer of showbiz behind the scenes and human nature behind the masks. In addition to taking a central role, he has brought together a dream cast that includes Chloë Grace Moretz, Helen Hunt, Edie Falco, Rose Byrne, and, in a role that may become one of his signatures, John Malkovich.

I Love You, Daddy also shows C.K. to be quite a cinephile. In an old-school stroke, he shot the film on 35mm, but not just any 35mm. This up-to-the-minute satire was shot on rich, timeless black-and-white film, in a throwback to the classics that inspired it. We don't see this kind of movie anymore. As for the actions of the characters on display here, we'll continue to see them so long as artists pursue their visions, and people their desires.

CAMERON BAILEY