The Old College Try: Jeff, Who Lives At Home

There are few friends greater than those willing to share their Netflix password with you. That has been my mantra for the past two days. My lovely friend Marie so graciously offered her info to me when I decided to veg out with a good movie, drink wine and eat chocolate. After watching a very estrogen-filled movie, I decided to pick out another. However, I found myself too tired to finish it. Now, I never do this. If I'm too tired, I'll still power through. But I thought this flick deserved a little more respect than that.

I watched Jeff, Who Lives At Home, written and directed by Jay and Mark Duplass. The film portrays a day in the glamorous life of Jeff, a 30-year-old stoner who lives in his mom's basement. Not sold yet? Jeff is played by the wonderful Jason Segel, alongside Susan Sarandon, Ed Helms and Judy Greer.

Everyone has their favorites in Hollywood; Jason Segel happens to be one of mine. His performance in this film is definitely one of the strongest elements about it. If you don't like him, well, this movie's probably not for you.



In a lot of his acting, Jason Segel smokes a lot of weed, plays a lot of basketball and gets made fun of for being so large. I've heard all of those jokes, I've seen it all before. But as I was watching, I had the feeling this was different; I'd never seen this side of him before. For this film, I felt that every wall was let down. It was purely and effortlessly him. He didn't have to dance through hoops, have special effects or musical accompaniment to convey raw emotion. I really cared about Jeff and how his life blossomed throughout the course of the film. The ending even brought me to tears. For a comedy man, I'd say that's a triumph.

The plot is very simple, and that may be part of why I liked it so much. Jeff's only task for the whole film is to go to Home Depot to get some wood glue. That's it. But amid the process of going to do so, the natural quirks of his character come out and a rich story I never expected began to unravel. As the viewer, once I saw how screwed up each character's life was, I wanted to know more. And because these people were so relatable, I cared about them so much more than I would a robot, a cartoon character or a superhero. They're real people, just like you or me. Call me crazy, but I'm infatuated with the idea of telling everyone's stories, big or small.

I was just so astounded by this film because it said so much with so little. I'm not going to say it's the perfect piece of cinema that should become a model for centuries to come. That's not the case. It's just a fabulous little feel-good film that I really enjoyed. And at the end of the day, Jeff's just trying to figure out who he is. I think that's a question we can all relate to.

Out of four, I give it: