Adult Beginners

Plot

After his company crashes and burns on the eve of its big launch, hipster entrepreneur Jake (Kroll) moves in with his estranged pregnant sister, Justine (Byrne), brother-in-law, Danny (Cannavale), and three year-old nephew in the suburbs where he is faced with the pressure of real responsibility.

Cast

Casting

On November 1, 2013, it was announced that Nick Kroll, Rose Byrne, and Bobby Cannavale were attached to star in Brothers Keeper - the original title which later changed to Adult Beginners. On December 10, 2013, Caitlin Fitzgerald has been cast as Kat, Jakes girlfriend "who dumps him after his tech startup fails and he moves back to his family home."

Filming

Principal photography took place in New York including a house on Elk Avenue in New Rochelle, New York for a month in January and February 2014.

Release

Adult Beginners had its premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2014. It was released on April 24, 2015 in a limited release in and through VOD on April 24, 2015 in the United States. It also has a release date for May 21, 2015, in Australia. It has also been screened at the South by South West Film Festival, Sarasota Film Festival, and will open the Nashville Film Festival.

Marketing

The first trailer was released on March 14, 2015. A teaser clip was released on April 14, 2015, titled "Make Me Jealous".

Critical reception

Adult Beginners received generally mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 45% approval rating based on reviews from 60 critics, with the critical consensus reading, "Perfectly pleasant and not particularly engaging, Adult Beginners is a mild middle-of-the-road comedy content to coast on the charms of its talented cast." Metacritic gives the film a score of 57 out of 100 based on reviews from 26 critics.

Adult Beginners gained a fairly positive response at the Toronto International Film Festival, with Nikola Grozdanovic of Indiewire giving it a B+ grade, saying "it’s not perfect, but as far as feature debuts go, there’s very little you can fault Adult Beginners for. Slightly pedantic and maudlin at times, with telegraphed metaphors and some rushed pacing, it’s still hard to call any of these hiccups major flaws. Katz, with the help of an inspired cast and an emotionally intelligent and mature screenplay, has succeeded in depicting the trials and tribulations of adults who, all for respectfully different yet equally weighty reasons, often make a three-year-old the most mature person in the room." He also praised the supporting roles of McHale, Krawkowski, and particularly Moynihan. Phil Brown of Collider gave the film a B- grade calling it "cute". "It’s a very heartfelt, sweet, funny, moving and deliberately small movie that does exactly what it’s supposed to do and then rolks [sic] credits before wearing out it’s welcome. [...] It’s a little wisp of a comedy with enough warm sentiments and observations about eccentrically neurotic adults to slip in a little emotional sting."

Justin Chang of Variety said of the film that "it’s the sort of casual hangout vibe that feels so lived-in, it’s a shame when the film begins to devolve into the sort of rigged reconciliations and easy epiphanies it had largely avoided, up to a point. [...] Still, those imperfections are forgivable, even fitting, for a modest, well-assembled charmer that represents a welcome branching out for most of the key talents involved." Furthermore, at the South by South West Film Festival, Michael Roffman of Consequence of Sound said "you don’t need to rush out and see Adult Beginners. However, it’s an ideal Netflix viewing in the near future, when the winter shifts into something awful and the afternoon begs for a little couching."