It was in the 2014 TV show Halt and Catch Fire that Scoot McNairy’s considerable acting chops became widely evident to the world.

Since then, he has been the go-to guy for being the most supportive supporting role, particularly on the big screen in things like Nightbitch and Speak No Evil.

And even though he’s the lead in this sentimental drama, he shows his supportive side once again, playing the single father to his daughter, played magnificently by two actresses.

The main way for Steve (McNairy) to deal with the death of his wife, is to up and leave the Midwest with his young daughter Alysia (Nessa Dougherty) for San Francisco.

They settle in a busy shared bohemian house, full of colourful characters coming and going, which is where Alysia first notices that her father enjoys the company of men.

It’s at such a young age that he forces a need to be independent on her, although whether it’s for her own good or his is unclear, as Alysia (Emilia Jones) blossoms into a teenager, feeling a distance grow between her and her father, against a worryingly troublesome political backdrop in the eighties, that her father seemed to fighting.

This is the directorial debut from photographer-turned-filmmaker Andrew Burnham, who related to the material, based on Alysia Abbott’s memoir Fairyland: A Memoir of my Father, having grown up in the Bay area like Alysia, as well as having his own father come out as gay.

He certainly has an eye for the period, beautifully capturing the essence of San Francisco during the seventies and eighties.

But more importantly he records the touching, if slightly strained, relationship between father and daughter. He adores her young and older, but it does appear that he’s using the excuse of giving her independence to concentrate on developing relationships with men.

This isolation is exquisitely portrayed on screen by two wonderful actors playing the same part of Alysia; Dougherty makes a superb acting debut as young Alysia, as she tries to navigate this new world thrust upon her; while Jones (daughter of snowman singing Aled) continues her good work from the likes of 2021’s CODA, continuing the coming-of-age tale of a young girl into teenhood and beyond.

It’s also set against a political landscape where the gay community found themselves turned upon with the arrival of AIDS.

A debut that Burnham can be proud of then, as can McNairy, who despite being able to play the gay card giving him carte blanche to be flamboyant if he chose to – which he declines, never takes the shine away from his impressive young co-stars, continuing his duty as one of the most supportive supporting actors of his generation.