This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Blistering performances.

Social outcast and bad drinker Eli( Jesse Eisenberg) works as a stock boy but aspires to go to a prestigious arts college. His former teacher Dave (Neal Huff) has managed to arrange an audition for him. On the morning of the audition, Eli attempts to quickly straighten out a home life that has always teetered on disaster. His sister Nicole (Emma Rayne Lyle) talks to people through a foul mouthed sock puppet that needs to be laundered. His waitress mother (Melissa Leo) needs to go to rehab. However things don't go as planned.Rehab won't accept Eli's mother Penny because her urine is currently clean and she doesn't have insurance. They suggest she do drugs to dirty up her urine. Eli aids and abets his mother on her quest. He runs into the likes of drug dealer "Sprinkles" (Tracy Morgan). At this point the comedy kicks into gear. Eli ends up as a translator between Sprinkles and his Spanish speaking connection.The film has some comedy scenes, most notable when Tracy Morgan is involved, but for the most part it is a drama that involves people with some type of problem which can be argued that they center around Penny's addiction. It is not a dark comedy per se, the comedy is not about dark material.Eli's attraction for Chloe (Sarah Ramos) didn't seem to be well developed. Tracy Morgan as a drug dealer and his sidekick Black (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) lacked credibility in those roles as they were comically written while the other characters were more serious. It is a feel good movie, but not one that will make you hold your side with laughter.Parental Guide: F-bombs, no sex, no nudity.

Review: For some unknown reason, I actually enjoyed this movie. The storyline shocked me because it just goes from one crazy situation to the next. The director cleverly mixed it up with humour and drama which makes the movie entertaining and interesting at the same time. Every single character has there own personal issues to deal with. The main character is a piano genius but he has to battle with obstacles that are put in his way before he has a clear mind to go through an audition. With drug dealing, love, troubled sister and stuck up auntie, there is enough material to keep you going through the short hour and twenty minutes. Enjoyable!Round-Up: It's good to watch a movie were Tracy Morgan isn't being an annoying idiot. He was actually good in this movie, as the drug dealer, and his sidekick was a great choice by the director. Eisenberg usually plays the same type of roles in all his movies, but I thought that he was also good in this movie. You can clearly see that he is actually playing the piano for real which shows that he has a real talent to fall back on. His mother was another character that played her part well as a drug addict. In all, all of the cast put in great performances in this low budget movie that should have got more recognition.I recommend this movie to people who are into there funny dramas about a mother and son struggling with personal issues. 6/10

Well, there are so many movies out there you can so easily do without. That however doesn't mean that some of them are still being some good and fun ones to watch, of which this movie is a perfect example! Most people will probably never see this movie, also mostly because this movie is being a low-key and independent production. But really, that doesn't mean that this movie isn't worth checking out. It's nothing to run out for but I see this as a perfect movie to watch on a rainy afternoon or as a way to kill some time with. It's well made, occasionally funny but above all things it's being a very light movie to watch, making this movie easy to digest and simply pleasant to watch, despite of some of its main dramatic themes.That's probably the reason why I enjoyed watching this movie; it never gets an heavy or too serious one. It manages to find a pleasant balance between its drama and comedy elements, by mostly inserting comedic ingredients and oddball characters.The setup of the movie is very simple, when things slowly are spiraling down for a young piano student, played by Jesse Eisenberg. He gets in more and more trouble with his family when simply trying to take his mother to a rehab clinic. It's fun to watch the situations he gets in, as he meets more and more people along his way.It's really a movie that is mostly being carried by its characters and the actors who are portraying them. It might seem like an odd choice for Oscar nominated and winning actors such as Jesse Eisenberg and Melissa Leo to be in this little film but I can definitely see why they wanted to be in it. It's simply being a true actor's movie, in which they are truly able to shine, without having the pressure of a big budget and high expectations and Hollywood producers constantly breathing down their necks.I'm only taking off a point on its rating because of its sudden ending. Things didn't really felt wrapped up, at least not to me it didn't. The ending pretty much came out of the blue and I wish they did something more with it.Not a must-see in any way but it's simply a movie to have some good time with!6/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I have to say that after watching this movie I was shocked to see Jesse, whom I would like to believe has a well-endowed acting talent and now a career, would do this kind of script, again. I mean, if anyone, has seen 30 minutes or less, both the movies are similar in more ways than one. A normal guy who is pulled into criminal frenzy, tries to cope up but always finds time to tell the girl that he loves her. I mean in both films, the progress and character development goes just at the same pace, but 30 minutes was way too fun with proper script and punch lines. Because it's funny the first time, but unappealing, rather painful the second time.The story has a happy ending running on a straight line with high predictability. The acting of Melissa Leo, Jesse and Tracy actually salvaged the film from shrinking to the bottom of IMDb ranking database.My verdict, if you've seen the trailer, then that's it. It's the whole movie, nothing new is going to happen in 1 hour, 25 minutes.