Boyhood gets messy in Big Time Adolescence, the debut of writer/director Jason Orley.
Ostensibly there’s only one adolescent here, teenager Mo, but his chosen mentor may not have grown out of this life stage, either. Zeke, ex-boyfriend of Mo’s sister, is a college dropout who’s still young enough to be wasting time, and the two have become tight friends. Zeke enjoys Mo’s naive gameness while Mo eats up Zeke’s advice without question. At first this is all fun and games, but eventually both have to leave these wild times behind them, whether they want to or not.
A coming-of-age movie is often a safe bet for first-time filmmakers; write what you know, they say, and for those starting out teendom may be the time they’ve processed best. That’s the hope for Orley, who’s got his entire credentials at stake as writer and director. With no one to hide behind, we’ll quickly know whether he’s the real deal or not.
The big selling point for this movie is Pete Davidson as the “adult” in this bromance, and while he’s certainly well known from his stint on SNL, he’s far from a known entity in films. He’s had supporting parts here and there, but this will allow us to really size up what he has to offer. The true lead, though, is Griffin Gluck as Mo, who has also bounced around in TV and film without really getting a premiere slot. As a buddy movie, it’s key that these two click, and luckily word out of its festival run is that they have real chemistry.
While it doesn’t look like Big Time Adolescence will be breaking new ground, it does give us a solid look at several up-and-coming people, and with a quick streaming release, that should be enough to generate interest.
Big Time Adolescence is directed by Jason Orley and stars Pete Davidson, Griffin Gluck, and Emily Arlook. It will have a limited US theatrical release on March 13th, 2020 and will drop on Hulu on March 20th, 2020. Further release dates are not currently known.
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