Movie Review: A suburban comedy of errors unspools in the darkly excellent ‘Adulthood’

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer Early on in Adulthood siblings Meg and Noah Robles suddenly and unhappily learn why they never got to have a dog growing up Related Articles A Big Bold Beautiful Journey lives up to its title Clemente doc captures life of baseball legend Robert Redford the Oscar-winning actor dies at Robert Redford Oscar-winning director actor and indie patriarch dies at It child star all grown up for London Calling It s not because their parents didn t think they could handle the responsibility or because dogs can be messy It s because there was a body walled up in the basement How could our parents act like nothing ever happened Noah Robles asks That s worse than the killing It s not but still They called it the playroom That -year-old corpse will soon unleash a suburban comedy of errors as the bungling brother and sister raised on TV police procedurals try to find a way out of this mess without losing their freedom or precarious lifestyles I wrote for two seasons on Blue Bloods I know how cops think says Noah Robles a wonderfully childlike loser played by Josh Gad His man-boy is a failed screenwriter in an Alamo Drafthouse T-shirt with maxed out credit cards Director Alex Winter and screenwriter Michael M B Galvin combine for a pitch-perfect black comedy that has a nifty satirical edge inverting the movie convention of discovering that the kids are monsters Meg played with lovely comic timing by a languid Kaya Scodelario brings her young children to a dangerous payoff meet because she couldn t get child care and loses her cool when she s mocked for missing a yoga class Have a good day Make good choices she tells her kids even as she clearly doesn t Not long after the body in the basement is ascertained more bodies start piling up as does the extortion sword play swirling detectives and so-called heavies who look the part even if they re really lambs If you liked Fargo Adulthood is for you It s all about the noose slowly tightening Once we do this there s no going back Meg Even years from now you ll think about it when you re trying to get to sleep the brother tells his sister as they decide what to do about the body It ll pop in your head at random times Winter keeps the tension tight but nicely attempts off the gas for certain neat touches like a conversation between the siblings about moving on that s set against a child s flag-football battle while both Gad and Scodelario take turns being the strong one He offers advice about not leaving evidence while moving a dead body You should put a few towels down and she juggles mundane tasks like Zoom meetings and checking her son s glucose levels with slamming a hammer into someone s skull like just another task for stressed-out parents these days This image distributed by Republic Pictures shows Kaya Scodelario in a scene from Adulthood Albert Camicioli Republic Pictures via AP This image circulated by Republic Pictures shows Billie Lourd in a scene from Adulthood Albert Camicioli Republic Pictures via AP This image published by Republic Pictures shows Anthony Carrigan left and Josh Gad in a scene from Adulthood Albert Camicioli Republic Pictures via AP This image published by Republic Pictures shows Billie Lourd left and Anthony Carrigan in a scene from Adulthood Albert Camicioli Republic Pictures via AP This image distributed by Republic Pictures shows Josh Gad left and Kaya Scodelario in a scene from Adulthood Albert Camicioli Republic Pictures via AP Show Caption of This image distributed by Republic Pictures shows Kaya Scodelario in a scene from Adulthood Albert Camicioli Republic Pictures via AP Expand Fitting for a movie with an actual skeleton in a closet Adulthood is about legacy and how we become our parents It s also about recognizing that our parents are human and complicated Very rarely do such movies end well They peter out or ramp up the violence to absurd and pointless levels Adulthood finds the sweet spot and lands the thing perfectly If you think Meg and Noah are monsters what would you do in a similar situation There are maybe monsters like that everywhere They even might be in the foldable chair next to you at the flag football meeting Adulthood a Republic Pictures release that opens in select theaters on Friday and streams on Sept is rated R for violence language throughout drug use and brief sexual material Running time minutes Three stars out of four