Review of The Sitter (2011) by Brent_Hankins — 20 Feb 2012

In THE SITTER, Jonah Hill stars as Noah, a jobless twenty-something slacker that lives at home with his mom and spends his days at the constant beck and call of his trashy, self-centered "girlfriend" Marisa (Ari Graynor).

When he accepts an offer to babysit his neighbor's three children, he anticipates a relaxing evening followed by some easy cash, but an unexpected phone call from Marisa results in Noah bundling the children into Mom and Dad's minivan and heading off into the city on an errand to score some drugs for a party.

What Noah doesn't count on is that each of these children are ridiculously messed up. Slater is completely dependent on anxiety medication and may or may not be having questions about his sexuality, Blithe is obsessed with celebrity gossip and idolizes the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, and the adopted Rodrigo has a penchant for thievery and blowing up toilets.

Noah is forced to balance all of these complications while simultaneously trying to deal with a "misunderstanding" that results in Karl the coke dealer (Sam Rockwell) and his sidekick trying to kill him and the children.

From a performance standpoint, my complaints are minor. Hill does what he does best, playing the same sort of character he always plays. The child actors are all excellent, particularly Max Records as the conflicted Slater, and Sam Rockwell steals the show as Karl, turning a one-note character into a constant source of hilarity thanks to his bizarre interpretation of the role.

JB Smoove also gets honorable mention as Karl's right-hand man, with a handful of lines that you'll most likely be quoting for weeks after seeing this film. Unfortunately, despite the praise I have for the cast, everything else is a mess.