Bob Trevino Likes It

Tracia Laymon · 2024 · 102 minutes
November 16 · Regal Riviera · 5:30 p.m.

When lonely 20-something Lily Trevino accidentally befriends a stranger online who shares the same name as her own self-centered father, encouragement and support from this new Bob Trevino could change her life.

Programmer’s Note

A decade ago, writer/director Tracie Laymon was looking for her father, who’d made a long habit of disappearing from her life, so she decided to friend him on Facebook. The next morning she woke up to a notification that “Bob Laymon likes it” and, as she told Variety, felt a surprising rush of relief: “My dad likes something of mine! We’re back! It’s gonna be okay.” The only problem? It wasn’t her Bob Laymon but a stranger in Kansas with the same name.

Although Laymon and Facebook Bob have never met, she continued to experience a kind of healing each time he wished her a virtual happy birthday or congratulated her for winning an award. Bob Trevino Likes It, Laymon’s debut feature, runs with the idea, imagining a scenario in which a similarly abandoned and open-hearted young woman, Lily Trevino (Barbie Ferreira, Euphoria, Nope), not only meets a better Bob than her own self-absorbed, gaslighting father but manages to bring healing to his life as well.

Winner of the Grand Jury Award and Audience Award for Narrative Feature at 2024 SXSW Film Festival, Bob Trevino Likes It evokes critical cliches — it really is heart-warming and a crowd-pleaser — because of Laymon’s deft balancing of a complicated emotional drama and because of the lead performances from Ferreira and John Leguizamo (John Wick, Moulin Rouge). Both have a “movie star” ability to express contradictory feelings, making us laugh out loud while breaking our hearts. French Stewart (3rd Rock from the Sun) also gives a memorable turn as Lily’s real father, a character so convincingly insufferable he inspired the headline: “Bob Trevino Likes It Will Make You Want to Punch French Stewart”!

Tracie Laymon will introduce the film and participate in a Q&A.

Named to IFC’s list of emerging “Icons” and film innovators, Tracie Laymon studied filmmaking at the University of Texas at Austin while cutting her teeth as a video journalist for Time Warner News and interning for Richard Linklater. Her short directorial projects have won jury awards at SXSW and other festivals, while her screenwriting pursuits have won awards and honors at competitions such as LA Comedy Festival, Madrid International Film Festival, BlueCat, Scriptapalooza, ScreenCraft and many more. Bob Trevino Likes It, her debut feature film, won the Grand Jury award and Audience Award for Best Feature Film at SXSW 2024.