As someone with a cold, cynical heart, it’s difficult for a movie to make me cry, so I was delighted with the flood of emotions I experienced while watching Bob Trevino Likes It. 

Barbie Ferreira is Lily Trevino, a lonely girl with an emotionally abusive father (played by French Stewart). Lily has never really experienced a true familial connection. Her mother left as a child, and her dad resented her very existence, which led to her major insecurities and extreme people-pleasing behavior as an adult. 

When Lily’s father cuts her out of his life, she starts to spiral. He’s terrible, but he’s the only family she has, so she starts searching for him on Facebook but connects with a different Bob Trevino (John Leguizamo) who happens to live nearby.

This Bob and his wife Jeanie (Rachel Bay Jones) have been through their fair share of heartbreak over the years and Bob, similar to Lily, seems to always prioritize other people’s feelings over his own.

After a while, Lily and Bob form an unusual friendship and start to find healing and compassion together. 

Bob Trevino Likes It is a small story that lives or dies by the performances from the cast. Thankfully, everyone here is fully committed to giving us characters who feel grounded and real.

Ferreira is instantly relatable and so loveable. From an early scene when Lily describes her past trauma to a therapist only to attempt to comfort the therapist when she begins openly sobbing upon hearing about these experiences, we know this girl. We feel for this girl. When her friendship with Bob makes her finally find value in herself, we want to reach out and give her a big hug.

Leguizamo is equally impressive in an understated but incredibly powerful performance. He conveys Bob’s pain with such subtlety while always showing kindness to those around him, and we can instantly tell he’s a good person who deserves more emotional support than he allows himself to receive. 

Aside from our leads, the supporting characters add a lot of emotional depth to the story because they feel so real and fleshed out—possibly because the story is based on a real friendship director Tracie Laymon had with a stranger online who shared her father’s name.

Stewart is pitch-perfect as a self-absorbed father whose indifference barely masks his resentment for his child. His character is infuriating in a way that had my blood boiling, but pathetic enough to make you even angrier for letting him upset you.

Jones’s role is also challenging because Jeanie must be somewhat mysterious to the audience, keeping herself emotionally closed up outside of her passion for scrapbooking, but also sympathetic. She loves Bob, we love Bob, so she must be a good person, and the way that plays out over the runtime is very satisfying.

Lauren ‘Lolo’ Spencer is great in her small role as Lily’s employer Daphne, who serves a critical role in helping Lily realize there are people in her life who truly care about her. Daphne encourages Lily to try out a rage room to  help her process all the emotions she’s been suppressing since childhood so she can grow as a person. It’s a relationship that is so sweet without becoming overly saccharine. 

There’s just something about movies that focus on empathy, human connection, and the power of friendship that seems to get me every time. My heart locks in so hard with stories like Bob Trevino Likes It, similar to how I felt watching Meiyazhagan, one of my favorites from 2024. 

In the infamous words of Nicole Kidman, “Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this.” Bob Trevino Likes It is chock full of heartbreaking moments, but remains uplifting and inspiring by showing us that tiny little acts of kindness can completely change someone’s life.