Bob Trevino Likes It

Bob Trevino Likes It is a 2024 American comedy drama film written and directed by Tracie Laymon. It stars Barbie Ferreira and John Leguizamo with supporting roles provided by French Stewart and Rachel Bay Jones. The film centers around a young woman who searches for her estranged father, Bob Trevino, online and forms a bond with a different man of the same name. The story is semi-autobiographical, inspired by Laymon's personal experiences.

The film premiered at the 2024 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival on March 9, where it won the festival's Grand Jury Award and Audience Award in the Narrative Feature categories.

Premise

A young woman named Lily Trevino uses Facebook to pursue her estranged father, Bob Trevino. In the process, she encounters a different, childless man of the same name who begins liking her posts, causing the two to correspond. Upon meeting up in real life, Bob becomes a father figure in Lily's life.

Cast

• Barbie Ferreira as Lily Trevino
• John Leguizamo as Bob Trevino
• French Stewart as Robert Trevino, Lily's biological father
• Rachel Bay Jones as Jeanie
• Ted Welch as Harlan
• Lolo Spencer as Daphne, Lily's roommate and employer

Production

Production occurred in 2023; because it was independent of any major studios, the project received waivers to continue filming amidst the Hollywood labor disputes at the time. Filming took place in Louisville as well as other Kentucky locations in Bullitt, Franklin, Hardin, Henry, Oldham, Shelby and Spencer counties. Tracie Laymon's company, Laymon's Terms, as well as Five By Eight Productions produced the film.

Release

The film premiered at the 2024 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival on March 9, where it received both the Narrative Feature Grand Jury Award and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. In August 2024, Roadside Attractions acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. It received a limited theatrical release on March 21, 2025.

It was screened in a gala presentation at the 2024 Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival. The film was also selected for the inaugural European edition of the Tribeca Film Festival in Lisbon and was an official selection of the 69th Valladolid International Film Festival, where it won the official selection's Audience Award. In October 2024, the film won the Best Feature Film Award at the San Diego International Film Festival.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 57 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Drawing a lot of humane power from Barbie Ferreira and John Leguizamo's performances, Bob Trevino proves to be a very likable movie." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A " on an A to F scale.

Following the film's SXSW release, Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com wrote that Bob Trevino Likes It is "the kind of movie that will make certain viewers roll their eyes but inspire others to see it multiple times in a theater, just to have that great feeling again." Seitz criticized Jeanie, Bob's wife, as a character lacking dimension but noted that his complaints about the movie were "minor in the greater scheme".

Angie Han of The Hollywood Reporter said of the film that it "draws its emotional power not from watching its characters break, but from letting them start to heal" and that it "succeeds beautifully on its own terms as a love letter, or perhaps a thank you note" but criticized how Lily and Bob seem to bond too easily, as their "jagged edges fit together as neatly as pieces of a puzzle".

References

External links

• Bob Trevino Likes It at IMDb