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Michael Angarano’s Sacramento is a tender, sharply observed indie comedy that captures the bittersweet turbulence of growing up—especially when you’re already supposed to be grown. Co-written by Angarano and Christopher Nicholas Smith, the film pairs Angarano with Michael Cera in a story that blends road trip antics with emotional reckoning, earning critical praise and attention on the festival circuit.
The film involves Rickey (Angarano), a irresponsible, child-man, who shows up at the door of his old friend Glenn (Cera), a neurotic, soon-to-be dad dealing with an unspoken meltdown. Rickey convinces Glenn to go on an unscheduled road trip from Los Angeles to Sacramento in the pretense of dispersing his father’s ashes. That facade is about to come apart when the ashes are discovered to be just parking lot grime from a convenience store—though Glenn carries on with it anyway, probably in more need of escape than he is admitting.
The duo taking to the open road, the film explores themes of arrested adulthood, unresolved friendship, and encroaching terror of responsibility. Glenn, despite appearances, is scared of being a father. He hasn’t even told Rickey he’s eight months pregnant with his wife Rosie. Rickey, meanwhile, has a child of his own he hasn’t even met, the result of a relationship he fled before it became too real. Neither of them is ready for what they’ll find back home—and their shared horror gives their cringe-inducing odyssey a rich emotional subtext.
Their dynamic is one of old affection, nascent hostility, and resigned oneupmanship. Along the way after they make their way to Sacramento, they are reunited with old versions of themselves with fortuitous meetingpoints at a saloon and local gym where they encounter each other by their paths of travel. Those however are not being played as conventional comedy. They are being played as subverted reminders of who they once imagined they were going to be and the people who they still attempt to be.
Kristen Stewart brings a quickness and sensitivity to Rosie, and Maya Erskine provides depth as Rickey’s ex, Tallie. But it’s the performances of the leads that propel the film. Angarano is explosive and charismatic, and Cera delivers one of his best performances yet—grounded, drained, and quietly desperate.
Sacramento doesn’t offer easy solutions, but it does get at something true: the insidious fear of becoming grown-up and the messiness of growing-up friendships. At 89 minutes, it’s a funny, introspective ride through the beautiful mess of growing up late.
