Adapted from Willy Vautlin's 2010 novel, Lean on Pete follows young Charley, a soft - spoken teen living in Oregon with his father Ray,
a stereotypical deadbeat dad given a slightly more multifaceted turn by actor and ex-model Travis Fimmel.
Since the 1970s the academics Charlie Lewis and Michael E Lamb, among others, have challenged
stereotypical and one - dimensional portrayals of fathers as «
deadbeat dads» or «play partners» incapable of the serious business of rearing a child.