Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie

Daddy Longlegs

Daddy Longlegs

Mining the emotional sense memories of their own fractured childhoods, Josh and Benny Safdie craft a by turns empathetic and disquieting portrait of parental dysfunction poised between fierce love and terrifying irresponsibility. Manic Manhattan movie theater projectionist Lenny (cowriter and longtime Safdie collaborator Ronald Bronstein) is perhaps the last person who should be raising kids, yet here he is, trying (and failing) to keep it together as his life unravels over the two whirlwind weeks in which he has custody of his young boys (real-life brothers Sage and Frey Ranaldo), with an impromptu road trip, a sleeping-pill mishap, and a night in jail all part of the chaos. Vérité New York naturalism gives way to flights of surreal lyricism in Daddy Longlegs, a blearily impressionistic anti–fairy tale that finds unexpected humanity in the seemingly most irredeemable of fathers.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 2009
  • 99 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.78:1
  • English
  • Spine #1138

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital transfer, approved by directors Josh and Benny Safdie, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack
  • New interviews with actors Sage and Frey Ranaldo and their parents, artist Leah Singer and musician Lee Ranaldo
  • Documentary from 2017 about the Safdies
  • Footage of Sage and Frey Ranaldo’s first meeting with actor Ronald Bronstein
  • Making-of program
  • There’s Nothing You Can Do (2008), a short film by the Safdies featuring members of the Daddy Longlegs cast and crew
  • Episode of Talk Show, a 2008 interview series featuring Daddy Longlegs cast and crew
  • Deleted scenes
  • Promotional films and trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Stéphane Delorme and a 2009 print interview with the Safdies

    New illustration by Sammy Harkham

Purchase Options

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital transfer, approved by directors Josh and Benny Safdie, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack
  • New interviews with actors Sage and Frey Ranaldo and their parents, artist Leah Singer and musician Lee Ranaldo
  • Documentary from 2017 about the Safdies
  • Footage of Sage and Frey Ranaldo’s first meeting with actor Ronald Bronstein
  • Making-of program
  • There’s Nothing You Can Do (2008), a short film by the Safdies featuring members of the Daddy Longlegs cast and crew
  • Episode of Talk Show, a 2008 interview series featuring Daddy Longlegs cast and crew
  • Deleted scenes
  • Promotional films and trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Stéphane Delorme and a 2009 print interview with the Safdies

    New illustration by Sammy Harkham
Daddy Longlegs
Cast
Ronald Bronstein
Lenny Sokol
Alex Greenblatt
Alex
Sage Ranaldo
Sage Sokol
Frey Ranaldo
Frey Sokol
Victor Puccio
Principal Puccio
Eléonore Hendricks
Leni
Sean Price Williams
Dale
Dakota Goldhor
Roberta
Aren Topdjian
Aren (boyfriend)
Abel Ferrara
Robber
Leah Singer
Paige (mother)
Salvatore Sansone
Salvie
Jake Braff
Jake
Marc Raybin
Mark
Credits
Director
Josh Safdie
Director
Benny Safdie
Written by
Josh Safdie
Benny Safdie
Produced by
Casey Neistat
Tom Scott
Coproduced by
Sam Lisenco
Josh Safdie
Benny Safdie
Brett Jutkiewicz
Zach Treitz
Michel Zana
Sophie Dulac
Executive-produced by
Andy Spade
Associate producers
Eléonore Hendricks
Matt Walker
Charles Merzbacher
Additional casting
Eléonore Hendricks
Alex Kalman
Edited by
Josh Safdie
Benny Safdie
Brett Jutkiewicz
Ronald Bronstein
Cinematography
Brett Jutkiewicz
Josh Safdie
Sound by
Zach Treitz
Benny Safdie
Production design
Sam Lisenco
Art direction
Ariel Schulman
Art production assistant
Katie Hickman
Music
Michael Hurley
David Sandholm
Matthew Volz

Current

Daddy Longlegs: Presto Magic!
Daddy Longlegs: Presto Magic!

The Safdie brothers drew inspiration from their childhood memories for their first feature as codirectors, a terrifying yet wondrous portrait of an unpredictable father.

By Stéphane Delorme