Big Time Adolescence
BIG TIME ADOLESCENCE - HULU
After over a year waiting for the film to finally release, coming out as a debut at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, Big Time Adolescence, directed by Jason Orley, has finally been released on Hulu following a high school student named Mo (Griffin Gluck) who, instead of hanging out with kids his own, age has become best friends with a college dropout named Zeke (Pete Davidson) who is more concerned with having fun and making mistakes rather than being productive with his life. Slowly, Mo begins to follow in Zeke's path more and more as those around him begin to worry.
The most surprising aspect of Big Time Adolescence is easily the acting within it. It does not come as much of a surprise, however, that Jon Cryer is effective as both a comedic and dramatic actor. Neither Griffin Gluck or Pete Davidson had proved themselves in a lead role by this point therefore, on paper, this seems like risky casting. Luckily both Gluck and Davidson deliver here with the latter especially impressing in the supporting role. Nearly reminiscent of Margot Robbie's performance as Harley Quinn earlier in the year in Birds of Prey, Davidson gives a performance packed with charisma and personality that makes nearly every scene with him a complete blast. Yet the SNL actor is also able to work on an emotional level, balancing the humour and seriousness when needed. Griffin Gluck might not stick out in as memorable a way as Davidson but he delivers a performance in which he comes across as innocent while also being able to maintain both a comedic and emotional level.
it is the story of Big Time Adolescence where the film starts to become less appealing, for the most part, is it is void of too many ideas; everything stated in Big Time Adolescence has been said previously, causing the film to feel exhausted and forgettable. However, If there is one thing to appreciate from the film's plot, it would be how it eludes most of the cliché conflict found in comparable films within a similar genre. There are multiple points where Big Time Adolescence feels like the film is going to end up using a tedious, overused setup for conflict, such as turning the two main characters against each other, but thankfully avoids this keeping the film from feeling like it is just going through the motions.
That being said, there is no doubt that Big Time Adolescence is an enjoyable film, mostly due to the memorable and engaging cast involved. Not only delivering solid comedy but also dives deeper into compelling themes even if the message of the feature ultimately does not stand out from the crowd as unique.
