Acidman (2023): A Heartfelt Father-Daughter Indie Movie
Thomas Haden Church and Dianna Agron star in this movie by Alex Lehmann about accepting your parents and not feeling fated to repeat their mistakes.
Acidman (2023) — currently streaming on Prime Video — is a movie about a woman named Maggie who travels across the country to see her estranged father who’s living in isolation, trying to communicate with aliens. She claims her trip is to check in on her dad, but it’s actually much deeper than that. It’s a heartfelt movie for anyone who fears they’ll make the same mistakes as their parents, uses their parents as excuses to avoid issues within themselves, and wants to accept or forgive their parents without changing them.
In one of my favorite scenes, Maggie is helping her dad prepare fireworks to try to communicate with aliens in a brilliant display of morse code. While they’re waiting for the sun to set, her dad acknowledges how she’s pregnant. This surprises Maggie since she isn’t showing and hasn’t mentioned anything about it. All her dad knows is that she’s married to a “nice guy,” that she left home without telling this guy, and that she thinks she’s destined to be like him: a parent who left.
Below is my fan version of that scene. (The original script is currently not available online.)
EXT. MOUNTAIN POND - EVENING
Maggie heaves a homemade firework launch box along the shoreline. Further away, her dad parks a dolly of other launch boxes and comes to help her.
When all the boxes are in position, her dad checks a switchboard while instructing Maggie to double-check the location of each box.
LATER
The sun has set behind the mountains. Maggie stands next to her dad on the shoreline overlooking the boxes and pond. She now holds the switchboard — perhaps a gift from her dad for not calling him crazy.
DAD
We better check those sequences.
Maggie reads off "go" checks for the different boxes.
MAGGIE
So what, they're just gonna show up or something?
DAD
Listen. We have to signal them when the moment is right.
MAGGIE
I can't tell what part of you is real.
He considers this for a moment.
DAD
You're not like me.
(beat)
That's real.
He searches inside himself for truths from the past.
DAD (CONT'D)
You're willing to stick it out. You were always that way.
MAGGIE
(softly)
What do you mean?
DAD
As a little girl, you had such dedication. You're just a little bit lost right now.
We see how desperately Maggie has been waiting for insight like this.
DAD
Whatever you decide to do, don't do what I did. Don't throw it all away.
The crickets chirp, the frogs croak. Maggie takes this in.
DAD
If it's a girl, you should think about the name Jacqueline. That's what I wanted to name you.
MAGGIE
(in disbelief)
What?
DAD
I still like that name.
MAGGIE
Dad, how did you know?
DAD
You're gonna be a great mother, Maggie.
She has reached the bottom of her dad's heart and is speechless.
DAD
Get ready.
We see the silhouette of a father and his daughter looking up at the night sky.
DAD
Hit it!
Maggie flips a dial on the switchboard and the fireworks explode into a colorful sequence of morse code. Each blast locks in the truth of her father's words.After this event, Maggie waits for something more. Maybe a hug, or more fatherly advice. But dad is elsewhere, looking for the aliens, waiting for them to signal back. Meanwhile, Maggie is right here.
The movie Acidman teaches us to forgive our parents and accept them as they are — and not to worry so much about them! Often, that worry is part of a worry that we are destined to the same fate as them. They are fine as they are, even the acidmans of the world. They just need our love, our forgiveness, and a kiss on the head (what Maggie gives her dad at the end of the movie).
What can we give our parents that we want from them?
After watching Acidman and being touched by the awesome emotion in Maggie during the fireworks scene, I became interested in the actress who plays Maggie. The father is played by Thomas Haden Church who I know from Sideways (2004), a movie that seems to have inspired some of the script for Elsewhere (2019). But I had never seen the actress who played Maggie. I learned that her name is Dianna Agron, and the quote featured on her Prime Video bio is just as awesome as her performance in Acidman.
“What a world we live in. I want to be incredibly close to the heart of it all. To live honestly, truthfully, and be completely present is the ultimate enterprise. And right now, I couldn’t possibly ask her anything more.”
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Awesome!!!🔥🔥🔥