Jesse Eisenberg’s debut film is much as you would expect from the loquacious actor, lots of talk. But despite that it has plenty of meaningful things to say about life today. As is often the case too, the main two protagonists are quite heavy going and unlikeable but that’s the point.
Evelyn (Julianne Moore) is a do-gooder social worker who runs a women’s refuge somewhere in middle America. She is married to a distant academic and has a 17-year—old son Ziggy (Finn Wolfhard) who has 20000 followers when he live streams on YouTube singing some pretty dire teenage songs. The two don’t really get on partly because he is that age and partly because they are very similar and don’t listen to each other.
Ziggy has the hots for Lila (Alisha Boe), a woke girl in his school who writes meaningful poems and is in political activism groups. Ziggy tries to impress her but has no knowledge about this because he switched off some years back (much to the chagrin of his mother who used to take him to rallies). So Ziggy’s campaign to impress Lila is not going anywhere fast despite her pleasant attitude towards him. In short, she sees him for what he is – immature, limited and arrogant.
Meanwhile, Evelyn gets impressed by Kyle (Billy Bryk), the mature son of a woman who recently entered the refuge and wants him to be her ideal son by facilitating his entry into a university programme. Kyle is obliging but he really wants to work in a garage with his problematic Dad and Evelyn struggles to accept this message. That is basically the story – how people try to impose their will on others and it is all quite neatly resolved in the end. Whether our characters learn I don’t know. There is a predictability about the film and while it is a decent first effort it lacks something. You can give Eisenberg credit for putting such issues as generational clash, social service in the present and the like on the table and he gives us plenty to think about. One feature are small scenes which show how people want control over others like the one in which Evelyn breaks off a meeting because she is uncomfortable with others speaking Spanish.
Moore adds another to her disappointed women collection and is competent as ever. Wolfhard is irritating but that seems to suggest he gets his part right and Boe and Bryk are fine in support. Both would seem to have good futures in better parts.
The film overall is perhaps more theme-based than character-based and it is a relatively quick-paced and agreeable watch. Just nothing out of this world. Nonetheless, it augurs well for Jesse Eisenberg’s directing and screenwriting careers.
3 stars
passionfilm 