20141102: Comedy Review--Adult World

Adult World

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 97 minutes, comedy.
2. IMDB: 6.1/10.0 from 7,293 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 54% on the meter; 37% liked it from 4,530 audience ratings.
4. I saw this on Showtime.
5. Directed by Scott Coffey, written by Andy Cochran.
6. Starring: John Cusack as Rat Billings, Emma Roberts as Amy, Evan Peters as Alex, Armando Riesco as Rubia, Shannon Williams as Candace, John Cullum as Stan, Cloris Leachman as Mary Anne.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Amy recently graduated from a good school with 90,000 USD in debts.  She does not have a job, and has been piling up new debts with her compulsion to enter every poetry contest she can find.  Her parents are near (or somewhat past) their ability to support her financially.  Her father gives her an ultimatum: get a job.


2. Amy goes looking for that job, and fails repeatedly.  Reaching the end of her rope, she interviews for, then accepts with regret, a job at Adult World. This sex shop sells books, magazines, and various related paraphernalia.  Amy is clueless about many things, and being a good employee is one of those things.  She tries, and is rather bad at it.  Alex advises her of her shortcomings, but she does not know that she is supposed to get better at it.  On the other hand, she makes new friends of value through work.


3. In parallel, she convinces her poet hero, Rat Billings, to mentor her in producing good poetry.  This is not an easy relationship, to say the least.


4. Will Amy learn some basic life skills?  Will she get published?  Will she ever get Rat's respect?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: John Cusack's performance helped float this dull comedy.
2. Three stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Reasonable.  The dark look reflects Syracuse in winter, but also Amy's depths of mood while struggling to navigate life on her own.


2. Sound: 8/10 I had no problems hearing the lines spoken by the actors.


3. Acting: 4/10 The story is good enough, but the execution was wretched.  The 97 minute runtime felt like 3 hours.  The plus four on the rating was from John Cusack's solid performance.  Emma Roberts was non-engaging.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 Some of the largest steps in the narrative were told in the closing credits.  I found this discouraging.  The pace was plodding.