No matter who you are, growing up can often mean discovering your parents are more flawed and complicated than you realized when you were a kid. But if you’re Alex Winter and you’ve made the scrappy yet still darkly fun film “Adulthood,” this is nothing compared to what he puts his characters through.
If you thought you had family problems, strap in, as your otherwise messy loved ones are all going to look like downright angels in comparison to this film that’s one part peak Coen brothers, one part an episode of the outstanding HBO series “Barry,” and one hundred percent Winter. Lovers of the director’s underappreciated film “Freaked” can rejoice as, even as it isn’t quite as joyously bizarre as that, it’s still got the same unhinged spirit.
What exactly this mashup entails requires being a bit coy, as much of the joy of “Adulthood” comes in the way everything starts in an already troubling place and proceeds to spiral out of control from there. What can be said is that death is always waiting in the wings and Winter captures that with often gruesome flair. Still, it’s far from perfect, with some moments of humor not quite hitting as hard as you’d hope for.
Though whatever is lost in laughter, Winter and company make up for in just how fully they commit to the bit, ensuring it ends up being less about how one’s parents are bad people and more about how it is we too are at risk of becoming them. It’s way more grimly profound than you’d expect and can feel like it’s having a bit of an identity crisis. However, all its bigger tonal swings ultimately pay off in spades just as everything is at risk of coming apart for its characters.
The ones at the center of this are siblings Meg (Kaya Scodelario) and Noah (Josh Gad) whose lives are about to be upended after their mother is hospitalized following a stroke. What is already a tough time full of painful emotions and then also complicated logistics they must deal with alone — their father died years prior — becomes an absolute nightmare when the duo discovers something hidden away in the wall of their parents’ basement. After initially panicking, they decide they’ll have to cover up their discovery out of concern about what people will think if they were to find out who their parents really were.
There’s something deeply tragic about this driving force of the film as both Meg and Noah, despite having vastly different lives from each other, are also not children any longer. Quite early on, you wonder why it is that they care about what people think of their parents and why it is that they are putting themselves at risk just to protect their reputations. Even as the film remains largely light on its feet, it’s in moments like this where you feel a more queasy throughline starting to rear its head about how Meg and Noah are still trapped in feeling like they have to look out for their parents, even if they didn’t always look out for them.
From there, the film becomes about how the siblings go to greater lengths to cover up the family secret, with both Scodelario and Gad serving as believable emotional grounding points. With that in mind, it’s when a captivating Anthony Carrigan (most known for his excellent work in the aforementioned “Barry”) enters the film as their cousin who, among many things, has a sword collection unlike just about any other sword collection you’ve ever seen in a movie.
Rather than just feeling like a bit part, Carrigan brings a uniquely chaotic energy to the entire affair where you aren’t sure if his character cares about helping his cousins or just wants to get something for himself. He’s consistently funny, sometimes frightening, and always making different choices in each moment that still ultimately serve the scene perfectly. A final confrontation rests heavily on his shoulders and he delivers on every big swing with ease.
There is much along the journey that isn’t always as compelling as the cast, but there are also some maddeningly clever misdirects that see Winter complicating things at critical junctures. The film is not merely just a farce, but also something that cuts into something a bit more thoughtful. When it then brings everything to a head and Winter lands one final blow via a killer closing monologue from Scodelario, it ends up with a great deal more bite when it needs to. There are adults in the room in Winter’s film, and that’s the problem. They’re exactly the ones you have to look out for.
“Adulthood” opens in select theaters on September 19 and is available to stream on digital on September 23.