Berlin review: Dustin Guy Defa’s ‘The Adults’
deadline.comWith this year’s selection, the Berlinale seems to be creating space in the festival calendar, between Sundance and SXSW, for a particular type of American indie: the melancholy, slight, intensely personal and hence rather divisive kind, in which vaguely famous actors—usually the comedic kind—play downbeat iterations of their more familiar selves.
It may not be a coincidence that Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg debuted here rather than home turf in 2010, but Dustin Guy Defa’s The Adults, which premiered in the festival’s Encounters strand, makes Baumbach’s problem child seem positively commercial by comparison.
Fortunately for all involved, Universal have already picked it up; this is definitely not the type of movie to thrive in today’s marketplace.
It begins in a hotel room, where Eric (Michael Cera) is making plans to see an old friend after three years away. Eric’s attempts to breeze back into town and pick up where he left off fall embarrassingly short, but he does connect with an old poker buddy who puts him in touch with some local players.
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