Review of Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2012) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

This is very much a slow moving, rather sentimental movie - one which seems to have a real lack of direction to start with but is quite touching as well. There's quite a heavy use of muzack I suppose you'd call it, background instrumental tunes, which highlight moments when its quite light hearted as well as more tense moments. Its a bit meandering, as the plot slowly develops we seem to go from one storyline, or sub story (such as his mothers apparent secret admirer at work) to another and it may seem a bit boring to those who are easily distracted or bored by rather slow, understated movies I imagine, although to be honest I quite enjoyed it as I felt I could relate to the main character in some respects. I liked the idea that Jeff was having a sort of typical, mundane day, seeming a rather run-of-the-mill, probably overweight, rather unremarkable guy who is regarded as a bit of a nuisance and otherwise overlooked but yet he was (in his head) contemplating rather deep concepts - those of destiny and identity and in his mind, he felt he was waiting for his 'calling'.

I should say that drug taking plays a part in this movie, as Jeff smokes weed and that could well play a part in him seeming to look for, or claim to have found, symbolic signs that supposedly guide him in his quest to find out - well, whatever it is he's supposed to be doing. Some of these supposed signs are quite a bit tenuous and unsurprisingly enough, he can seem a bit childlike and naive in this regard but people may be less keen on it, due to the drug angle. Its hinted at that his mother is aware of his drug taking but presumably turns a blind eye to it, as she doesn't rush home to stop him when he warns that she probably won't like it if he admitted what he'd been doing, while on the phone to her.

Its understandable that he feels rather directionless, given he's unemployed, hasn't been in a relationship, lives at home and all the rest of it, though he doesn't spend the whole movie feeling sorry for himself - he comes across as more of an observer, a thinker. I liked that although drugs play a part in the movie and Jeff would fit the criteria for it, this really isn't a sort of basic stoner teen comedy movie, with no real 'gross out' moments, although its hard to categorise it. On Ciao and IMDB its categorised as a drama but I wouldn't say its especially dramatic, although there is perhaps a small element of it but its not a really fast, exciting movie - its more a sentimental movie, if thats even a genre? I'm not sure. Its watchable enough, although after having seen it once, I can't really picture me watching it again.

The camerawork is rather shaky, I'd imagine deliberately so, giving it more of a slightly budget documentary feel to it, which won't suit everyone. Its not too nauseating but was noticeable enough to, well, notice and mention it, obviously. Just to clarify, it may be said to have a slight documentary feel to it but Jeff himself doesn't speak to the camera or address the audience, yet we get a good glimpse of (or an insight into) his thoughts.

This movie reminded me of movies such as Napoleon Dynamite and as such, maybe even Little Miss Sunshine which I really enjoyed, so I suppose it does have an underdog element to it. I liked the messages it contained, encouraging people to do what their instinct tells them, to make the most of life and so on, pretty positive stuff, although right at the end I couldn't help but feel that it became a bit too coincidental and even a bit too cheesy or corny, as much as I suppose I was expecting that by then. Some will no doubt be quite keen and even re-assured it and others might be less keen but I thought it was a pretty watchable, um, watch or film regardless. This didn't strike me as an especially memorable film overall, I think perhaps if the script had been tweaked a bit, it could have been better - it has potential and I like elements of it but its certainly not by any means perfect, more good-ish?.

I thought it was a decent enough watch but would I outright suggest purchasing this film in particular? no.