The Adults is a movie that shares some somber, moody, and dethatched DNA with Charlie Theron’s much better Young Adult. Here we have a movie whose title is half true (the “the” is accurate). It’s about three siblings who have technically and legally become adults, but you wouldn’t know if you had to hang out with them. It’s a great big pile of awkward in a movie that’s not fun to be around.

Michael Cera plays the pretense of an adult with a pretense of a beard who comes home to passively aggressively see his sisters and to play poker passive aggressively. Nobody quite gets along or communicates like a healthy adult.

This is a rather slow film full of intentionally awkward attempts at humor as we watch these adults try to communicate with one another. It’s not a lot fun but it feels honest in an unhealthy kind of way. You might laugh (or at least smile uncomfortably) but I doubt you’ll guffaw. I’d hesitate to even call it a comedy… more like a short-circuiting drama about short-circuiting adults.

I’m pretty mixed on this one. I loved Young Adult for playing in the same sandbox but something about this flick didn’t pull me in. Probably their total inability to communicate as a group (which is the point of the flick). I like the actors though and I think the movie delivers exactly what it sets out to deliver… so a decent, awkward time.

Score: 75