Coming of Age Review – A nasty crime noir comedy by Alex Winter, where a family conspiracy revolves around the division of assets | film

A A throwback to the black-tinged black comedy-drama genre of the past where good guys break very badly, this quietly tough film sticks to the template but adds a few new twists. It also relies on the talents of a cracking roster of supporting players, who add a great deal of texture and color to the proceedings, not least the film’s director Alex Winter, best known for playing Bill opposite Keanu Reeves’ Ted. In a marginal but important role, Winter plays a sad man, the kind of tragic loser that Bill might have grown into if he and Ted had not encountered George Carlin and his most amazing time machine.

However, there seems to be something a little undercooked here, perhaps due to Winter’s direction or Michael M. B. Galvin’s script, which seems to lack a little bit of torque in the final turns of the screw. The setup is simple enough, and it’s a perfect fit for anyone with an aging parent and poorly behaved siblings. Meg (Kaya Scodelario) has outsourced the care of her widowed mother Judy (Injun Umholt) to domestic help Grace (Billie Lourd, wonderfully frivolous) while Meg raises her children and tries to revitalize her business selling stuff on Facebook. When Judy suffers a stroke, Meg’s brother, Noah (Josh Gad), who wants to become a screenwriter, arrives, and the two brothers must prepare for the death of their parents and the division of assets.

But while sifting through the trash in Judy’s basement, Meg and Noah discover a body, apparently dead for many years, trapped in a wall there. They suspect that the dead man may be one of the missing neighbors; This raises new problems, including how to deal with Grace’s blackmail attempt. Further complicating the estate planning and mathematics of the crime is the needy variable in his cousin Buddy (Anthony Carrigan, best known for playing NoHo Hank on the TV show Barry), who just wants to be a part of his cousins’ lives again. Carrigan, as he was in Barry, is a serial scene stealer and you can’t stop watching his charming and disgusting antics.

On the downside, the noir imperative that forces Meg and Noah to dive to new depths to protect themselves never feels adequately prepared, and ultimately their characters feel a bit like ciphers, and are less good than even Judy, who barely has more than five words in the entire film. But the package has a nasty little bravado that makes it a nice counterpoint to all the holiday cheer coming our way.