SACRAMENTO
(director/writer: Michael Angarano; screenwriter: Christopher Nichols Smith; cinematographer: Ben Mullen; editor: Max Goldblatt; cast: Michael Cera (Glenn), Kristen Stewart (Rosie), Michael Angarano (Ricky), Maya Erskine (Tallie), A. J. Mendez (Lee); Runtime: 84; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Sam Grey, Christopher Nichols Smith, Chris Abernathy, Michael Angarano, Stephen Braun; Vertical Entertainment; 2024)
“An indie character-driven comedy about self-discovery.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Michael Angarano (“Avenues”) directs an indie character-driven comedy about self-discovery, that he co-stars in and co-writes with Christopher Nichols Smith.
The opening scene has the carefree Ricky (Michael Angarano), on a California camping trip, trying to get a tan, where from across the lake Tallie (Maya Erskine, the real-life wife of Angarano, they met during filming), yells out that he has “a nice dick.” They then have a brief woodland tryst. The film then flashes forward one year later, as the thirty-something LA suburbanite residing high-strung Glenn (Michael Cera) faces fatherhood for the first time. His lovely supportive wife Rosie (Kristen Stewart) tries calming him down from his anxiety over fatherhood and all his other insecurities.
Glenn’s estranged childhood and high school friend Ricky pays him a surprise visit after spending some time in group therapy trying to recover from his father’s death a month ago, and goads him into taking an impromptu trip with him to Sacramento by telling him he needs his help in spreading his father’s ashes. Glenn doesn’t tell Ricky he expects to be a father and was fired from his job, but just takes off with him. Ricky doesn’t tell him that he doesn’t have with him his father’s ashes.
There’s constant bickering between the manipulative man-child Ricky and the neurotic Glenn.
The very funny comedy brings out themes concerning parenting, how to act like an adult, and the struggle to be a better person.
Sacramento is a film about thirty-somethings who never learned how to deal with real life, and the titled city becomes their quest to heal their past wounds.
It played at the Tribeca Festival.
REVIEWED ON 6/24/2024 GRADE: B-