Louis C.K.'s 'I Love You, Daddy' feels like a dare

In I Love You, Daddy, the new movie written (with Vernon Chatman), directed by, and starring Louis C.K., our lead character Glen has an enormous poster in his office that reveals exactly who his biggest idol is: a filmmaker named Leslie Goodwin (played by John Malkovich).

But you don't need a poster to tell you which director C.K. himself is channeling in I Love You, Daddy. It's all over the movie. You can see it in the towering skyscrapers, shot on 35mm in black and white, and hear it in the old-fashioned orchestral score.

This is C.K. channeling Woody Allen, and more specifically, Allen's movie Manhattan.

In fact, that Leslie guy Glen worships so much? Turns out he's a stand-in for the man himself, a respected older director who has a thing for much younger women – teen girls, actually – and has been dogged by child abuse allegations for years. Which also makes him a stand-in for C.K., who's got his own troubling accusations to deal with.

But let's rewind a bit.

When the film first opens, Glen doesn't seem like a total sad sack. He's fabulously wealthy and enormously respected, thanks to a brilliant career as a TV writer. Indeed, he is so respected that, as his loudmouthed friend Ralph (Charlie Day) points out, he could "literally hand the network a pile of shit" and get a green light. "How do you even know they're good?" Ralph wonders, good-naturedly and offhandedly.

Glen actually doesn't know they're good, because he hasn't actually even written the show he's just sold to the network. To premiere this September. Which is in five months. But it'll be fine. Surely.

At least he's blessed with a daughter, a 17-year-old charmer named China (Chloë Grace Moretz) who ends every conversation by cooing, "I love you, daddy." He loves her so much that he's unable to ever tell her no or set reasonable boundaries. Daddy's little girl gets whatever she wants.

That becomes a serious problem when Glen and China attend a party held at the home of a movie star, Grace (Rose Byrne), who's getting entangled romantically and professionally with Glen. Leslie is there, and Glen's absolutely star-struck upon the man he's idolized his entire life. Leslie's more interested in China. Worse, she might be interested, too.

C.K. has always mined much of his humor from the uncomfortable gap between crystal-clear principles and murky reality. That's true again in I Love You, Daddy.

Glen espouses feminist ideals, but he's a hypocrite who piles work on his beleaguered producer, Paula (Edie Falco), and consistently disappoints the women in his life. He tries to discuss feminism with his daughter, and only ends up getting all mansplain-y about it. And he's just not sure what to do about China, who's claiming her independence in exactly the way he dreads most.

That ambiguity applies, too, to the idea of judging people based on the gossip about them. "You shouldn’t say things about someone you don’t know, that you’ve only heard rumors about," he scolds. But when Grace points out that he's doing just that by assuming the worst of Leslie and China's relationship, he shoots back, "That's different."

With regard to Leslie, it's not much of a spoiler to say that the buzz is mostly true, but doesn't paint the whole picture. The man is both exactly what we expect (an old pervert) and not at all what we expect. His most disarming quality is how chill he seems about everything. You don't like him, really, but you're as fascinated by him as the characters are. (And how can you not be, when Malkovich is bringing such a perfectly weird energy to the role?)

With regard to C.K., however, it remains a question mark. Throughout the movie, Ralph keeps trying to get Glen to just come out and ask Leslie if the child molestation rumors are true. Glen demurs, but it feels like C.K. issuing a dare about his own reputation.

Go on, ask me, he seems to be saying. And someone's bound to soon, as the cries for C.K. to address his alleged misconduct get louder and louder. In I Love You, Daddy, though, he doesn't offer an answer. Not yet.