Aaron Paul's character was a bad father.

Sounds like the dad is trailer trash himself

dude.. least he Dident beat the crap out of his sons

There was nothing Hollis could have done to keep Jacob from his friends. Jacob seemed to be more of an instigator than the rest of them anyway, until Lance's family falls apart at least.
I found the dynamic of his "crew" to be one of the most moving and identifiable aspects of the film.

If he made you believe he was a crappy father, then he did his job. As an actor, he made you believe he was white trash. And the fact that you are ranting about it shows how good of an actor he is.

The dad is confused and conflicted, but his heart is in the right place. He doesn't make the kids feel like they are inferior or losers or screw-ups the way some far more sucessful fathers do. He doesn't know how to discipline "properly" --- but that is a fine line to walk with a sensitive, volatile teenage boy. Some people who are far surer of themselves end up creating a tragedy or alienating their kids for life. Heis in over his head, but at least he doesn't take his frustration out on the boys He is also very traumatized by the loss of his wife; it isn't so easy to just dispense of those "lowlife" friends he's probably had all his life. HE can't be perfect, and he's well aware of that, but if I could extrapolate this family out, the boys will probably end up loving their dad, which is a huige success.

That doesn't necessarily make someone a bad father. I've known men just like that who love their children dearly and are/were very good fathers and I've known men who went to their kids' baseball games, monitored their television watching, exposure to violence and were total tools and emotionally "absent" fathers.

Good and bad are very subjective terms and can only be defined by the people for whom the behavior(s), in question, impacts. Everybody else is just taking a guess.

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"Can we all just parachute down from Cloud Coo-coo Land?" Jimmy-Better Call Saul