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Created Mar 18, 2012 01:02AM PST • Edited Apr 02, 2014 01:41PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Better to think of Jeff, Who Lives at Home as affecting drama with LOLs than as comedy with some stinkers. Consider the title as Exhibit A. Funny and intriguing to me, others might say “What The …?”

   Many will reject Jeff@Home on stinkers alone, though it ends up as serious as a shot to the solar plexus. Oh yeah, it’s also quite precious, though what do you expect from a movie about a 30 year old man-child.

   If you’re not scared off yet, prepare yourself for a great movie.

   The story revolves around a pair of dumb and dumber brothers, a nice guy and a jerk, each self-pitying about his own life but sure his brother is the bad seed. Recognizable IOW, extreme characterizations aside.

   A trio of great stars play the movie’s exploding nuclear family: Jason Segel’s Jeff, a slacking stoner; Ed Helms’s Pat, a screw-up striver; Susan Sarandon’s Sharon, their put-upon Mother.

   Seriocomic acting doesn’t get a whole lot better than this.

   Kevin – an important yet protean character – is played by several actors. In fact the movie could be retitled Waiting for Kevin without missing a beat. That it’s not is a sign and you know what they say about Signs.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Jason Segel is now a first rate comic moviestar, a kinder, gentler Seth Rogen. He’s ideal as an easily distracted man-child too lazy to fend for himself in the real world, his doughy face conveying the silly philosophical conundrums that vex his character. He’s also a credible athlete, in basketball or swimming.

   Ed Helms is another quasi TV star who has become a first rate comic moviestar, first in The Hangover, then in Cedar Rapids and now in Jeff@Home. Unlike Segel, Helms stretches in this movie. Normally a put-upon putz, here he’s an egomaniacal putz who declares “I’ve got it” before each self-inflicted disaster.

   Susan Sarandon anchors the movie as straightman to her cinematically idiotic sons. Long since graduated to playing middle-aged roles, Sarandon never gives a bad performance and the camera still loves her. She’s lovely and delightful to observe as the possibility of an office romance penetrates her protective carapace.

   The strong supporting cast includes:

   • Judy Greer as an exasperated wife.
   • Steve Zissis as a guy who’s all too happy to listen to her.
   • Rae Dawn Chong as a slightly wild BFF.
   • Evan Ross as the first of several Kevins.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    Another Jay & Mark Relationship Adventure. Brother to brother, Mother to sons, husband to wife, man to man, woman to woman: the Duplass Brothers nail most of them.

    They paint a picture of a dissociated contemporary world. People go through life loosely connected to the larger world around them. Only family ties bind, though even those are often tenuous.

    Interspersed with the ennui are beautiful, lyrical moments, none better than a surprising kiss under a waterfall.

    Mumblecore came of age with Cyrus, this critic said two years ago. Jeff@Home takes it into adulthood.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

12. Play Really Great 4.5

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Great 4.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.2

17. Sex Titillating 1.6

18. Violence Fierce 1.6

19. Rudeness Profane 3.3

21. Reality

    Glib 1.4

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.7

23. Biological Glib 1.5

24. Physical Natural 1.0