2 days Ago
There is something strangely comforting about two men, well into adulthood, crashing back into each other’s lives just in time for everything to go sideways. Sacramento , directed and co written by Michael Angarano, taps into that comfort and chaos with a bittersweet road comedy that is not really about the road at all. Instead, it is about the potholes of growing up.
Late. Glenn (Michael Cera) and Rickey (Michael Angarano) are at the centre of this misadventure. They are the kind of friends who go way back.
Too far, maybe. Glenn has checked the boxes: job, wife, and soon-to-be father. Rickey considers himself wild and free, living on impulse, riding the fumes of charisma, and lying like it is a full-time job.
The story kicks off when Rickey drops by unannounced with a wild tale about scattering his father’s ashes in Sacramento. One problem: Sacramento is not anywhere near the ocean. Two problems: The urn is full of dirt from a gas station.
But Glenn goes along with it. Maybe because he needs an escape more than he wants to admit. His job is on the line.
His wife Rosie (played with crisp honesty by Kristen Stewart) is eight months pregnant. And somewhere under that soft-spoken exterior, Glenn is falling apart. This is not a typical buddy road movie .
The road trip barely lasts a third of the film. And that is the charm. The focus is less on scenery and more on what is unraveling inside the car: regrets, unresolved baggage, and fears neither man can name out loud.
And once they reach Sacramento, the past catches up fast, especially when Rickey comes face to face with the woman he abandoned (a grounded Maya Erskine) and the child he has never really known. The comedy here is not loud. It simmers in awkward silences, misread cues, and emotional blunders.
Angarano never pushes for punchlines. Instead, he lets the humor rise from the characters themselves. Broken, ridiculous, and sometimes painfully familiar.
Cera, in particular, delivers something quiet and potent. He does not play Glenn for laughs. He plays him for truth.
There is anxiety in his posture, sadness in his pauses. He is a man who thought he had life figured out until it started changing faster than he could process. It is a performance that nudges, not shouts.
Angarano, as Rickey, is all chaos and charm. He is the wild card who never folded. But he is also hollowed out by choices he will not confront.
When the film finally strips away the jokes and digs into what these two men are running from, it finds its emotional core. Sacramento does not offer neat resolutions. That is not its aim.
Instead, it invites you to sit with the mess. To laugh at the absurdity of adulthood. To remember that growing up is not a deadline.
It is a practice. And sometimes, it takes a fake funeral, a beat-up Chrysler, and a fractured friendship to even begin. This indie gem may fly under the radar, but it has real heart and just enough bite to make it linger.
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