Film Review: SACRAMENTO (2024): Michael Angarano’s Smart and Funny Film is Occasionally Undermined by its Own Ambitions
Sacramento Review
Sacramento (2024) Film Review, a movie directed by Michael Angarano, written by Christopher Nicholas Smith and Michael Angarano and starring Michael Angarano, Michael Cera, Kristen Stewart, Maya Erskine, Bunny Levine, Daniel Edward Mora, Rosalind Chao, Michael Justin Gonzales, Mike Hartsfield and Stephanie Jackson.
Michael Angarano’s new film, Sacramento, knows how people think and act behind closed doors, and, in one scene, a leading actor in the film is banging a crib to see what would happen if the baby tried to get out. However, he is a grown man, and a baby is a baby, but people’s insecurities often get the best of them. Sacramento is sometimes too smart for its own good right from the opening scene where its director’s character in the picture meets a woman and they try to see if it’s a match made in heaven. They call out, for example, their favorite character from the hit TV show, “Friends.” They each come up with different answers so they’re probably not soul mates in a perfect world, but they’re soul mates in this world, for whatever reason. That’s an interesting concept. Sacramento will have a lot of surprises in store for the audience.
Michael Cera and Angarano are a good pair of actors to play buddies in a road trip movie like Sacramento. Their casting is certainly not the problem. It’s the unconventional path this story takes that challenges Angarano’s comic intentions, and thus makes the viewer realize that people take detours in their lives to come to terms with their limitations and their current situations. It’s not really a funny central premise, but the actors still seem to be having a ball as their characters are on a journey to sprinkle Rickey (Angarano)’s father’s ashes and, in turn, come to terms with their present lives in order to move forward.
We meet Rickey as the film’s premise begins in a support group where he appears to want to give guidance to his fellow peers, but he’s held back by the support group volunteer who leads the group. She suggests that he leave the group and move forward with his life in a different way. This scene could lead one to feel sorry for Rickey as he means well, but it’s easy to see the volunteer’s point.
Cera’s character, Glenn, is a bit insecure, himself. He’s a new dad and his wife is Rosie who’s played by the ever-versatile Kristen Stewart. Rosie and Glenn are believable as a couple who challenge each other, even though Stewart’s role is only moderately developed. In contrast, Rickey’s girl, Tallie, is much more interesting as portrayed by Maya Erskine who charms right from the very first scene in the picture.
Much of the movie is a male bonding story, and the lack of plot development leaves the film as more of a character study than anything else. This film takes some detours in the story line to show the highlights of the characterizations and teach the movie’s primary lesson which is that in order to come to terms with our past and improve our futures, we must take time for ourselves to grow in the present by interacting with others. That’s a valid message and one the film gets across to the viewer rather earnestly.
Cera captures his character’s insecurities as Glenn takes the leap into fatherhood. Though both Glenn and Rickey are a bit insecure in different ways (and not necessarily stable, by definition), they grow as men through their interaction with one another. Angarano’s Rickey is developed well, but the viewer may not connect with his character at the outset due to his quirkiness. Some scenes feel improvised because they are so genuine and don’t seem to be scripted. I’m not sure what the true situation was, but Cera and Angarano’s performances are nevertheless stellar throughout.
If Sacramento is ultimately too slight for more mainstream viewers, it is chock full of individual scenes that drive the film’s main points home. This picture takes a journey much like the characters in it do as the path the movie is driving along goes off course as life often does as well. This movie’s flaws are sometimes also its strengths as well which makes it hard to dislike. In particular, the support group scenes stand out as ones which feel truly authentic despite being awkward.
This picture is so intelligent that it begs to be analyzed in-depth and seen more than once. Angarano has co-written himself a juicy role that the actor chews his teeth into with terrific precision. Perhaps, the reason Kristen Stewart’s role is so small, though, is that she’s not wholly part of the big picture the story is telling. Sacramento is, in the end, about the guys. Those women in their lives are there and, for all intents and purposes, the gentlemen have to grow up sometime. What better time to do so than now? That’s the question the film asks the viewer. If you like offbeat stories or have enjoyed Michael Cera’s work in the past, you’ll be surprised how well he has developed as an actor as evidenced by his performance in this movie. It’s not necessarily for everyone, but it has its head in the right place.
Rating: 7/10
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