So, let’s say your elderly mother is in the hospital following a stroke and you’re in her house sifting through her things, including boxes of your childhood memories down in the basement. And there seems to be a mold problem, so you check it out, and some mummified human remains come falling out of the wall. Yes, you’re surprised, and yes, you probably consider calling the police. But there might be other options.
This is the situation our characters find themselves in in Adulthood, the new movie from director and actor Alex Winter, who you probably know best as Bill from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. And this setup all happens in the first ten minutes, so don’t worry too much that I’m spoiling things. The movie stars Josh Gad and Kaya Scodelario as adult siblings who have to figure out how to handle this unusual scenario, and in all honesty, it’s largely something we’ve seen before, as secrets compound and everything spirals out of control. But the performances here separate the movie a little bit, enough for it to stand out from a lot of similar films, which are often too aggressive in their comedy and strain to be both funny and uncomfortable in equal measure. That this movie shows some restraint even with Josh Gad in the cast surprises me as much as anyone, but credit where it’s due—he’s quite good and only as abrasive as is required for this part. Scodelario’s subtlety as her innate darkness quietly percolates is kind of a delight, and Anthony Carrigan from HBO’s series Barry shows up as a somewhat psychotic cousin and he displays his considerable gifts as a physical actor.
Adulthood doesn’t so much play with our expectations as it does move alongside them—we generally know what’s coming and the movie knows that we know, and so a few scenes, especially one involving large swords, pull us right to the edge of our anxiety, as we begin to wonder if there’s a darkness that might exist in some of us without our knowing, or, maybe worse, if it might be something that runs in the family.
Adulthood is on VOD September 23rd.
