Flag Day is a 2021 drama/thriller directed by and staring Sean Penn
(“Milk”) about a father (Penn) doubling it up as a bank robber and counterfeiter trying to provide for his daughter Jennifer Vogel (Dylan Penn). He learns her on love and how to be content in what she has been provided with in life. However, her father happens to be known as a very clever counterfeiter with footprints covering the United States as she tries to climb above it all to bond with her father before that relationship fades away.
This is the first time Penn has stared in a project he directed as do his kids Dylan Penn and Hopper Jack Penn. The story goes nowhere fast but opening with Jennifer being interviewed by the Feds and being educated how good a con man her dad is as it flashbacks, no shortage of those here, to the 1970’s for Americas “Sister Golden Hair” playing on a car radio as he is being pursued by the police. A better musical choice would have sufficed for that era. Sean Penn’s hair and face was made up to give him that gruffly look and all throughout he chain smokes which is part of the R rating. Bottom line this dysfunctional film, full of shouting and watery eyes can’t carry the family dynamics that Jennifer Vogel wrote in her book of which this true story is based on even at the end of the car chase this flag doesn’t quite fly high enough.
2 stars
