Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

Adult Beginners Blu-ray Movie Review

Gotta (re)start somewhere.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 13, 2016

Life doesn't always work out as planned. Things change. Sometimes they're things within one's control, sometimes they aren't. Life's one constant is change, yet it's sometimes the one thing nobody accounts for in their grand plans to find success and happiness. Occasionally, life's big upsets can lead to small miracles, like reconnecting with family and finding a truer and straighter path to happiness. Those are all the driving forces behind Director Ross Katz's (The Choice) Adult Beginners, the story of a young man whose big plans blow up in his face and who must return closer to his roots to pick up the pieces and find personal salvation and fulfillment some other way. It's a wholly unoriginal story that banks on admittedly well-drawn characters and a fair bit of now-standard quirkiness to get by. The movie isn't particularly satisfying, but it's competently assembled and put together well enough, and with just enough humor, heart, and honest drama, to scrape by as a worthwhile, but not particularly memorable, watch.

On the rebound.

Jake (Nick Kroll) has it all. Well, almost. His company is set to introduce the "Minds i" to the market, an affordable yet highly advanced piece of wearable technology. It's sure to set the tech world ablaze and make him, and his investors, a ton of money. But at the last minute, one of the component manufacturers calls him to say they cannot fulfill their end of the bargain. The product goes belly-up, and Jake's life spins out of control. He loses everything and has no choice but to stay, at least short-term, with his estranged sister Justine (Rose Byrne), who is pregnant, raising a three-year-old named Teddy (Caleb and Matthew Paddock), and living with her husband Danny (Bobby Cannavale). Jake is allowed to stay on so long as he accepts the task of playing nanny to Teddy. As he reconnects with his family, he comes to better understand who he is and discover his place in the world.

Adult Beginners' biggest obstacle is...every other movie out there that's just like Adult Beginners. The semi-indie, quirk-filled, kinda-funny, kinda-dramatic structure has become a staple of cinema in recent years. "Real-life Dramadies" one might call them. Katz's film blissfully rides the wave that watches as the main character is submerged in a detached-from-reality high, suffers in the misery of his crash, witness his rebound, and opens up his soul when he realizes the best things in life aren't what he used to think are the best things in life. Rather than big money and fame, which were within his grasp but slipped through his fingers, he comes to learn the value of reuniting with family, being true to himself, and finding a purpose greater than material wealth and social stature. These are all rather humdrum themes, not bad themes but themes that have been explored ad nauseam all through recent cinema history. Adult Beginners does a fine job of running with them, but it doesn't distinguish itself in the process. This is one of the most straightforward movies of its kind, a letter-of-the-law sort that exemplifies the style. It's a no-harm, no-foul sort of experience, a film that just goes with the flow, works fine for what it is, but doesn't leave any sort of lasting impression on the viewer or, certainly, the greater cinematic landscape.

While the movie's core characteristics satisfy requirements but don't exactly signal a transformative new era in comedic-meets-dramatic character-based cinema, Adult Beginners does boast a good cast and solid, though straightforward, technical craftsmanship. The cast is quite impressive, with Nick Kroll leading the charge as Jake, before a man obsessed with making it big but coming to realize that the best things in life don't have dollar signs and the lowercase letter "i" tacked somewhere on a name. He's clearly enthusiastic for the part and falls into character with commendable ease and effortlessness as he explores the inward struggle by way of all the outer plot machinations in which he finds himself engaged. Rose Byrne is his equal as his pregnant sister, herself in something of an existential crisis centered around her growing family, of which her husband Danny, played by the seemingly ever-present, in these sorts of movies, Bobby Cannavale. Kroll and Cannavale share good chemistry and some of the movie's best scenes. Ross Katz capably directs, largely getting out of the way and allowing the actors, not behind-the-camera techniques, to tell the story. He understands his genre and what it requires of him, and he smartly leaves it be and never stylistically injects himself into the movie.

Adult Beginners Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Much like the movie, Adult Beginners' 1080p transfer isn't particularly noteworthy, but it's a solid enough presentation with no serious flaws. the digital source material holds up well, marred by (occasionally spiking) noise but nothing that really distracts from a watch. Colors are lively throughout. A neutral color palette is accentuated by almost constant bright lighting that really allows snappier shades of red and purple and all sorts of colorful accents around interiors and exteriors alike to shine. Details are likewise rock-solid, with clothing a standout and faces revealing stubble, pores, bumps, and makeup with commendably intimate texturing. Basic image clarity is excellent, allowing even smaller touches -- worn paint, wood grains, odds and ends in the background -- to showcase their wares, too. Skin tones retain a pleasing neutrality and black levels are stable. Overall, this is a technically solid presentation from Anchor Bay.

Adult Beginners Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Adult Beginners features a simple, but generally effective, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The track is very straightforward, offering little more beyond music and dialogue. Musical cues present nicely, yielding a positive sense of space across the front but not much in the way of obvious, clearly defined surround information or low end support. Clarity is fine and individual instrumental details are easy to hear. Minor ambience helps set the stage a few times, but rarely does the track create a very obvious or intimate sense of place. Locations such as a bar are the most lively, but much of the movie is content to focus on the front-and-center information. That information usually comes in the way of dialogue, which holds firm in the center and plays with consistent, lifelike clarity.

Adult Beginners Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Adult Beginners contains one supplement. The Making of 'Adult Beginners' (1080p, 9:35) is a quick discussion with Director Ross Katz and Actors Rose Byrne and Nick Kroll. Discussions include story themes and details, character angles, Katz taking the job as director, script and funny moments, cast and crew camaraderie, music in the film, the weather during the shoot, and more.

Adult Beginners Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Adult Beginners falls into a comfortable midpoint in the quirky character-driven Dramedy genre. The story isn't particularly original, nor are the themes, but it gets by on good performances and stable technical specs. It's worth a watch for the performances. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of Adult Beginners features technically stable video and audio. One little extra is included. Rent it.