E164 | OLD DADS (MOVIE)

<p>“Old Dads,” a Netflix comedy about three middle-aged dads in Los Angeles, each trying to deal with the delayed pleasures and perils of fatherhood, sounds like a Hollywood satire to watch along with “Bad Moms,” or maybe the sort of broad burlesque of child-rearing that would star someone like John Cena. Actually, though, it’s not that sort of movie. It was directed and co-written by Bill Burr, who also stars in it, and it’s been spun out of the kind of prickly incorrect observations that are the hallmark of Burr’s stand-up comedy — and also the kind of squirm comedy that powers his anthology series “Immoral Compass.” “Old Dads” isn’t nearly as good as “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” but at times it feels like three episodes of that show jammed together — that is, if Larry David were a Gen-X firecracker whose anger-management issues make Larry look like a pussycat.</p><p>In the opening scene, Burr’s Jack, playing catch with his pre-schooler, tells the audience in voice-over that embracing fatherhood later in life was more or less the best decision he ever made. He and his wife, Leah (Katie Aselton), have another baby on the way; as Jack sees it, they couldn’t be happier. So what’s the problem? In the old parental gender wars, men were called out for not being nurturing enough, or for failing to do their share of the housework. Jack isn’t that kind of caveman. He’s a warm, hands-on father, not the sort of ancient old-school sexist who expects his wife to do the heavy lifting of parenting while he’s off working or unwinding.</p><p>The problem for Jack is cultural and generational. He hates the brave new world of safe spaces, obsessive social justice, and what he sees as extreme oversensitivity. When he arrives at his son’s private preschool, Little Hearts and Minds, to pick him up, Jack is two minutes late, and this is treated as a major infraction. Didn’t he read the guidebook? In the middle of it all, he blows his stack at the principal, Dr. Lois (Rachael Harris), a moralistic Karen who beams with passive-aggre