A Kid Like Jake

Alex and Greg Wheeler are a Brooklyn couple with a bright four-year-old son, Jake, who is about to enter the competitive admissions process for New York City kindergartens. Jake is drawn to princess dresses and toys usually marketed to girls, and the director of his preschool suggests that this side of him could help him stand out among applicants. As the two parents weigh how much to lean into that advice, tension builds between them over what Jake needs and how they see their roles as a family.

The drama was directed by Silas Howard, released in 2018 as the first of the two features he has directed, from a screenplay by Daniel Pearle. Claire Danes plays Alex, a lawyer who has set aside her career to raise Jake, and Jim Parsons plays Greg, a psychotherapist; Parsons also produced the film. Octavia Spencer appears as Judy, with Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Ann Dowd and Amy Landecker among the credited cast of thirty-one.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 5.6 from around 4,100 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6 out of 10 from roughly 158 votes. A critics' rating of 6.1 out of 10 from fifty reviews places it slightly above the audience score on IMDb and close to the TMDB figure.