[4] Lenny, a divorced father and a projectionist at a Manhattan movie theater, gets custody of his sons Sage and Frey for two weeks of the year.
Lenny behaves obnoxiously and argues openly with other adults—including their school principal and a homeless panhandling veteran—in front of his sons, often involving them in the conversations as he enjoys setting up various improvised "games" with them.
Back home, they are visited by Lenny's European friend Salvie, who is hard to understand and plays a dangerous game where he stands on the boys' stomachs.
Meanwhile, Sage and Frey insert pee into a toy firetruck and shoot it at Jake, who tells Lenny he will no longer watch his kids when he gets back.
Leni returns to Lenny's apartment to make up with him just as he gets a call from his boss, who needs him to work overnight and threatens to fire him for the incident with the printer.
Lenny does not want the kids to wake up alone in the morning, and since Leni is unable to stay overnight he instead decides to drug them with smaller doses of a sleeping pill he uses.
Lenny, now alone, grows increasingly discontent, throwing public temper tantrums around his friends and repeatedly calling Leni, who does not pick up.
When Lenny irritates the hired movers enough that they kick him out onto the street, he and the boys carry their belongings around on the sidewalk and load them onto a Roosevelt Island tram.
The website's critical consensus reads, "Raw, honest, and jarring, Daddy Longlegs sets a spellbinding new standard for DIY cinema.
"[12] Chuck Bowen of Slant Magazine gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, writing, "Daddy Longlegs might have been something, a more original than usual treatment of what is basically abuse, if the earlier scenes had been more clearly worked out.
"[13] Natasha Senjanovic of The Hollywood Reporter commented that the film "may not be wholly successful but it is a very good attempt, thanks especially to the script and acting.