YNOT at the Movies

Based on a true story in Jennifer Vogel's 2005 memoir "Flim-Flam Man," the slow burn "Flag Day" (USA 2021 | 107 min.) portrays a father-daughter relationship in a dysfunctional Midwest family, directed and acted by Sean Penn, with his two adult children Dylan Penn and Hopper Penn. Despite a satisfying performance, we leave the movie knowing little about these characters and even less about why they behaved the way they did.

The film opens with a police chase after the bail-jumping John Vogel (Sean Penn), who masterfully produced nearly $20 million in counterfeit US currency. With a sleepy voice-over, narrated by John's daughter Jennifer Vogel (Dylan Penn), the film flashes back to the '70s when Jennifer was a child (Addison Tymec) and filmed by John who obviously is fond of super 8 camera and classical music.

But John, who was born on Flag Day (June 14), is far from a cultured or sophisticated father living in the Midwest. Instead, he is rather a reckless con man and leaves Jennifer and her little brother to their alcoholic mother Patty (Katheryn Winnick). Always with a bad haircut and a cigarette in hand, John was a bank robber and an arsonist before he became a banknote counterfeiter.

When Jennifer becomes a teenager in high school, she starts doing drugs and her future seems to be doomed like the rest of her family. But remarkably, not only does she sober herself up, but she also attends the University of Minnesota studying journalism and lands a job at a local newspaper after her graduation.

Along the way, she struggles to navigate the relationship with her father, until she sees the police chase on TV.

On any account, John is an enigmatic con artist that we want to ask so many questions about. How did he produce that much fake money by himself? Why is he setting buildings on fire? How can he rob a bank in such a comical fashion as if he wants to get caught on purpose, yet he can be so discrete and masterfully pull off other schemes?

But the story is told from Jennifer's perspective and it appears she still has no idea who his father is, because none of these questions is answered in the film. When Jennifer's hypnotic voice-over takes a break, the film is often filled with songs to make you wonder if you are tuning into a radio station.

So we didn't get to know much about John, even though he is an unlikable but an interesting character. How about Jennifer? What made Jennifer get her acts together, and transformed herself overnight from a junkie to an investigative journalist? The director Sean Penn didn't address that either. We are just watching a father and a daughter drifting around without knowing what's going on with them, especially in their heads.

"Flag Day" opens on Friday, August 20, 2021 in the San Francisco Bay Area.