Jeff, Who Lives at Home

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🎙️ EPISODE 300: 01.24.2021 *Review starts @ ~ 29:20 Jeff, Who Lives at Home is the fourth Duplass brothers feature since 2005, and one of two coming out this year. Ed Helms and the titular Jason Segal (Jeff, who lives at home) are brothers. I have enjoyed the work of these actors and their performances here are both typically good. Segal is basically playing a more forlorn, more hippie version of the self he fully cultivated in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, while Helms is trying his damnedest to break free of the semi-pathetic bozo boss his Andy on NBC's The Office has morphed into. Not that his character here (Jeff's older brother Pat) isn't a pathetic bozo–he 100% is–just a different sort: replace the preppy whimsy with happy hour goateed rage. For the most part, he transitions smoothly in this role; his departure from Andy/Ed Helms hasn't been as natural as Michael/Steve Carrell in his movie roles, but if this rendition is part of a process, I think there's a lot to look forward to.

This movie has an excellent title. Besides its obvious simplicity and accuracy, its perfect because you immediately know what it's really getting at. It conjures a very specific, very modern, and very American reality: that Jeff is a loser who lives with his parent(s) (in this case, single mom Susan Sarandon). But if you think about it, this is a fucked mindset we all share. Where else would one live but "home?" That we assume this person is some kind of derelict–not a 'real' adult–perhaps with multiple mental health issues, and that we infer all this from a five-word statement, says plenty if not more about modern culture than it does about the Jeffs of the world. Where and what is "home" when it so easily implies the place you go back to when you've failed? Well, we get to see what a 'legitimate' home really looks like, via Pat and his wife Linda (the ubiquitous Judy Greer) and their scornful, tattered marriage. Take note: you have to carve out your own cookie-cutter sadness before you can be considered a real adult. Jeff isn't having any of it.

The film starts with Jeff tape-recording his stoner ramblings on the shitter with a handheld cassette recorder. What is he talking about? I won't spoil it, but it's funny and fitting It provides a basis for the main underlying theme (destiny) and Segal nails it (OK, a hint: M. Night Shyamalan is significantly involved). Other highlights include the triumphant return of an aged Rae Dawn Chong (leading lady of many 80s flicks, including 1986's Soul Man), and a highly original and unexpectedly great score (Beck also contributes a beautiful, brand new track called "Looking for a Sign" that serves as montage fodder in as smooth and as genuine way possible).

Jeff does have a couple issues, though. My biggest beef is with the camerawork. Employing handhelds to give the film an extra boost of raw realism is fine, but their insistence on doing quick zooms on the actors' faces got annoying super-fast, because A) its over-obvious "look at this emotional response" plea not only belittles the viewer's intelligence but also short-sells the characters and actors, and B) I simply found myself waiting for the zoom on almost every shot which proved very distracting and ultimately unnecessary. Other than that, maybe a few of the lines that were specifically intended as jokes fell flat, but I can't really bitch about that as Helms and especially Segal pick up the slack by turning regular dialogue into humor with their comedic sensibilities.

The two most recent Duplass brothers movies (this and 2010’s Cyrus) have featured bigger names and been given more mainstream releases, and as such they’ve been inevitability written off as quirky by the mainstream press. But I really disagree with that. They're minimalist and brief (83 and 91 minutes respectively), but to me they're what good dark comedies should be. I will only peruse Rotten Tomatoes until after I've seen a film, lest I be struck with sage wisdom like this:

For a culture-at-large where five simple words can be so loaded, I guess two words are all most people need to summarize their feelings (even the ’Top Critics'!). I'd like to think we're more complicated than that, and I think the Duplass brothers feel the same way.

*** part of THE BIG EPISODE 300 EXTRAVAGANZA wherein I reviewed 36 movies, mostly live reads of critiques I wrote between 2009-2012. The finished product above is a highly edited version of the truly embarrassing one that was read during the five-hour podcast recording. I guess this is growing up. ***

THE 36 MOVIES REVIEWED DURING EPISODE 300

30 MINUTES OR LESS • ALEX BAG: UNTITLED FALL '95 • AWAY WE GO • BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD • BEING ELMO • BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM • THE BROTHERS SOLOMON • A BUCKET OF BLOOD •
THE CAMPAIGN • THE CENTER OF THE WORLD • CHRISTMAS ON MARS • THE CHRISTMAS TREE • CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE. • (500) DAYS OF SUMMER • A FIELD IN ENGLAND • FUNNY PEOPLE • GET HIM TO THE GREEK • GIGANTIC (A TALE OF TWO JOHNS) • INCEPTION • JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME • LEAVE NO TRACE • MAN ON WIRE • MIDNIGHT IN PARIS • MONEYBALL • MOON • MUTUAL APPRECIATION • POM WONDERFUL PRESENTS: THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD • RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES • SLEEPWALK WITH ME • SOME DRINKING IMPLIED • TIM AND ERIC'S BILLION DOLLAR MOVIE • TRANSIT • TO ROME WITH LOVE • THE WICKER MAN • WINTER'S BONE • YOUTH IN REVOLT

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 300C - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 300E ⫸

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