Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Big Time Adolescence’ on Hulu, an Indie Comedy Starring Pete Davidson as an Epic Megaslacker

Big Time Adolescence arrived a week earlier than previously announced, so anyone participating in pandemic-related “social distancing” has another new movie to stream this weekend. The indie-sized sort-of-comedy marks a step forward of sorts for Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson, who tackles a lead role, playing a 23-year-old neo-slacker enjoying an unusual friendship with a high-schooler. Sure, Davidson is funny, but does he have the intangible stuff necessary to carry a whole movie?

BIG TIME ADOLESCENCE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Bookend: Mo (Griffin Gluck) has none of the stereotypical superficial features of someone who’d be dragged out of class by a cop, but here he is, being dragged out of class by a cop. Flashback: When he was 10, he hung out with his sister Kate (Emily Arlook) and her boyfriend Zeke (Davidson). The couple broke up, but Mo hung on. Jump ahead six years, and Mo is 16 with a new driver’s license, but he’s got a fake ID so he can hang out with Zeke, who’s seven years his elder, and is as aimless as a sniper with a busted sight. They do all types of almost-nothing — go to the bar, hang out and smoke weed, chow fast food in the parking lot of an ancient abandoned Media Play location, drink until they barf, etc. They’re definitely bros, and they do bro shit.

Is that kind of weird? Yeah, but if it’s not hurting anybody, then, well, it’s not hurting anybody. But there was the scene with the cop hauling Mo out of class, so someone’s gonna get hurt eventually. Anyway, Zeke is a terrible appliance salesman, and Mo is socially awkward with his peer group, and there’s a mutual endeavor that solves each of these problems: Zeke provides the drugs, and Mo finally gets to hang at house parties because he sells the drugs. And at these parties, Moe finally summons the courage to ask out his crush Sophie (Oona Laurence). THIS WILL ALL END WELL.

I haven’t properly described Zeke yet. He’s the type of guy parents hate; just ask Moe’s. Zeke always wears track pants, he has a shitty frosty bleach-job hairstyle and he’s covered with bad tattoos, but we don’t judge people by appearances right? Right. We’re deep. We’re astute. But we’d hang out with Zeke and conclude that he’s a genial sort, but a couple gormless joint-passing circles with him, and we’d have more than our fill of him. He’s the type of guy who sings Sister Hazel songs at karaoke to get over a breakup. It’s one thing to live in the moment and be kind of funny in an irritating sort of way, and another to be unconcerned with what’ll happen five minutes from now, not to mention tomorrow, especially to an impressionable kid who looks up to him like an older brother and doesn’t quite have the fully developed mental acumen to recognize a bad influence when it’s forcing a beer into his hand.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Big Time Adolescence skirts the hem of bawdy teen-party yukfests-with-heart a la Superbad, an insightful art-comedy like Eighth Grade and a slick and smart coming-of-age comedy along the lines of The Edge of Seventeen — but it doesn’t really commit to a distinctive tone or style.

Performance Worth Watching: Davidson and Gluck astutely capture the lived-in dynamic of an mentor-type who needs to pass on his wisdom (such as it is) to the kid who enjoys having a cool older brother-type person in his life.

Memorable Dialogue: Enjoy this prime example of Zeke Wisdom: “When you get older, you realize that’s what life is — just a bunch of scribbles and dicks and violence, all in a void.”

Sex and Skin: Just some smooching. And ribald bro talk. Lots of ribald bro talk!

Our Take: I dunno — Big Time Adolescence is kind of funny but sort of plays it straight and ends up hitting the boring sweet spot between comedy and drama. That doesn’t mean it’s a lousy movie, though. Gluck and Davidson lead a uniformly good supporting cast making the most of a lightweight, emotionally muted screenplay yearning for more wit and character depth. Moe is the type of kid who — well, I don’t quite know what type of kid he is. Does he have goals or interests? Is he a good student? What exactly is he risking by hanging out with Zeke? The movie doesn’t get into that beyond implying he’s a pretty good kid because he wears shirts with collars.

Perhaps depositing a character like Zeke at the crux of the story is part of the problem. He’s such an empty soul, a slugabed with no bed and barely a slug. Loneliness lurks in the margins of Davidson’s performance, and here I again reference the Sister Hazel karaoke scene, in which we sense Zeke has hit bottom even though he might not comprehend it. If he doesn’t have enough self-awareness to recognize his own inner ache — it’s covered with tattoos and general loosey-goofiness — how can we fully empathize?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Big Time Adolescence doesn’t quite reach its potential, but it’s well-directed, occasionally insightful and worth watching once.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Big Time Adolescence on Hulu