‘The Adults’ had its world premiere at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival, and its US premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in June. Didn’t make it to Berlin? Me either! Variance Films will be releasing ‘The Adults’ in select theaters on August 18, 2023.
The film stars Michael Cera, Hannah Gross and Sophia Lillis. ‘The Adults’ was written and directed by Dustin Guy Defa.
What is the film about? Check out the synopsis and trailer below.
‘The Adults’ follows Eric (Cera) as he returns home for a short visit and finds himself caught between reuniting with his sisters and chasing a victory with his old poker group. As the trip extends, Eric finds it increasingly difficult to avoid confrontations and revelations as his carefully constructed façade of his adulthood gives way to old childhood conflicts. While Maggie (Lillis) attempts to recreate the intimate world the three of them once shared, Eric and Rachel (Gross) are faced with the divide between their childhood selves and the adults they are now.
Director Dustin Guy Defa reflects on the the core inspiration for the film:
One of the most heartbreaking qualities of growing distant from family is the pain of never again having that same intensely intimate relationship with your siblings. It was as if, in childhood, there weren’t two or three or four children; you were one identity, one body, without separation or boundaries, connected before egos (and middle school) came along to break the illusion. Are we ever that close again with another human being?
There’s a lot unsaid throughout most of The Adults, and the thing most being unsaid is that these people used to love each other more than anything else. The fantastic world they lived together as children is no longer attainable. This unspoken tension is how a lot of families operate.
It’s too painful to look directly at reality and know there really is no way back. Are we still the children we were, or are those children gone? Where do our childhood imaginations go? Is there a possibility that we can still play the way we played as children, or does adulthood really mean the end of all that?
Credit: Variance Films