Sacramento (dir. Michael Angarano)

By: Adam Freed

Sometimes men just need to hug it out.  There is a cultural perception that women share an unspoken sisterhood in which the communication of emotional need flows like a superhighway.  For each conveyed need, there is a requisite support system in place waiting just one ear away. While for men this cannot seem further from the truth.  Attempts at providing even the closest of friends an emotional status report amounts to feeling like being stuck in traffic.  The end result of this masculine emotional repression is the subject of Michael Angarano’s sophomore film Sacramento.  On its surface, Sacramento is a comedic and playful long lost buddy comedy, but beneath the surface of the laughter is a deeply insightful cry for mental health reform as it pertains to male emotional support of one another.

Glenn (Michael Cera) seemingly has everything he could ever ask for in life, a suburban LA home, a wonderful wife, and a child on the way.  His wife Rosie, played by a divine yet understated Kristen Stewart (Love Lies Bleeding, Spencer), seems to be the emotional glue holding Glenn together.  As an obvious victim of life long repression, Glenn feels consistently on the brink of a panic attack.  Rosie’s form of communication with Glenn is therapeutic in nature, yet Stewart’s dry and pointed delivery proves great fodder for comedy.  This familial stasis is survivable until Glenn’s high school friend Rickey shows up uninvited.  Where Sacramento separates itself from what could’ve become a goofball buddy comedy, is that Glenn and Rickey share a relationship like that of so many adult males.  Their bond seems built on memories of their past rather than forged by a closeness in the present.  It feels impossible for the two childhood friends, or for many men who watch the film, to feel fulfilled in friendships that aren’t based in honesty or emotional vulnerability.  Rickey has to deceive Glenn in order to spend meaningful time with his best friend, and Glenn resents that his counterpart still holds on to some of the immature freedoms long since evaporated from his own life.

Sacramento is a funny movie, but its superpower is that behind the jokes and some endearing performances are two wounded men, hampered by a society that never told them how to grieve, to struggle, to cry, or to ask for help.  Their duality of deception comes to a head in a masterfully written scene of the mutual therapizing of one another.  Angarano’s film is touching, humorous and most importantly true in that it is a cry for help from all men.  The cynical may describe Sacramento as a wandering tale of millennial self discovery, which is to undersell the meaningful message that the film delivers.  Fatherhood has a miraculous way of forcing men to stare in the mirror, hopefully a portion of that reflection involves a plan to teach their baby boys how to break the generational cycle of emotional repression.  Starting with a hug sure wouldn’t hurt. 

Target Score: 7.5/10 Sacramento is the summation of a humorously conceived script, thoughtful performances and genuinely heartfelt moments.  Michael Angarano’s film thoughtfully builds in warmth and depth until releasing a touching climax.  While this isn’t going to be a major box office draw, it should be required viewing for young men on the verge of adulthood.  

Sacramento was screened as part of Movie Archer's coverage of the Tribeca Film Festival