MOVIE REVIEW - Jeff Who Lives At Home

Little movies have a tendency to be the best movies sometimes. Jeff Who Lives At Home is not one of the years best movies, but it is a breath of fresh air right now.

In limited release, this movie stars Jason Segal, Ed Helms, and Susan Sarandon. It's the story of Jeff (Segal), brother Pat (Helms) and their long-time single mother (Sarandon). They are incredibly dysfunctional as an adult family. The boys father died when they were teens and mom has never remarried. Jeff is 30, and lives in his mom's basement. He spends his days smoking pot and basically wastes his days doing nothing. He is a big guy, former college basketball player with a very strange outlook on life. He is terribly naive, but in his naivete, he believes in his heart that we are all connected in some cosmic way and that we should listen to this. This causes frustration within his family.

Pat is married to Linda (Judy Greer). Their marriage is on the rocks, and he suspects she is having an affair, and she might be. Pat is totally not a grown up, and has virtually no idea how to be in a marriage. Plus he's an underachiever and a wanna be. Their mom is frustrated on how the boys don't get along, and how the whole family is a wreck. Plus, she is lonely in her own life with no one of any meaning in it for many years.

The story takes place over an amazing day where all of their lives will eventually intersect in Jeff's own cosmic way. Will his self prophecy pan out, and are we all connected, and is this the way life is supposed to be? Well, you know the whole time the answer is yes, or there would not be a movie. But it can be overlooked. This is OK.

JWLAH is a very entertaining flick that checks in at about 85 minutes. The story is original, and this is overall done well. This movie is filmed wonderfully. The actors are filmed brutally raw. All of our characters look like real people, not much makeup here, and that totally gives this movie a sense of real that I really liked. The script outside of the obvious centering on Jeff, is extremely well done. The situations are real, the problems are real and the dialogue and situations are relatable. Some may say that the glorification of a character's bad behavior may be on display here, and that's apt. But this is an honest look into what many people are doing right now, and that's to be respected too.

Segal is slowly transforming into a different kind of actor. Should be noted for Segal fans, this is not juvenile, gross, bathroom humor Segal. He is very good in this role, that required real acting, with grown up dialogue. Helms has become a poster child for small Indy movies, and I loved him here as the selfish Pat. Huge kudos too to Judy Greer, who is one of the very best supporting actors in Hollywood. She is so good, and believable here just as she was in her small role in The Descendants last year. I would like to see more of her. She is terrific!

Jeff Who Lives At Home. Very good, not great. And certainly a nice adult alternative right now for movie goers.