Jeff Who Lives at Home

The writing/directing team of brothers Mark and Jay Duplass has staunchly resisted Hollywood's monetary lure, preferring to make their own independent films focusing on true-to-life interpersonal relationships (working in the “mumblecore” genre, characterized by handheld camerawork, improvised dialogue, and a cast of close friends). Living in his enabling mother's basement in Louisiana, scruffy 30-year-old Jeff (Jason Segel) has never grown up. Jeff firmly believes that “everyone and everything is interconnected in this universe,” referring to M. Night Shyamalan's movie Signs, which he watches obsessively while smoking weed. So when Jeff answers a wrong number from a random caller demanding to chat with someone named Kevin and also winds up leaving the house to buy wood glue to fix a kitchen cupboard, he reads deep significance into the fact that a young man on the bus has “Kevin” written on the back of his basketball jersey. Jeff's day will also bring him into contact with his older brother, Pat (Ed Helms), who is so obsessed with owning a new Porsche that he neglects his marriage to miserable Linda (Judy Greer), who may or may not be having an affair. Then there's Jeff's weary, hard-working, widowed mom (Susan Sarandon), who pores over flirtatious messages from an anonymous admirer that appear on her computer, trying to decipher them with her lesbian friend (Rae Dawn Chong). An absurdist low-key dramedy focusing on the drab life of a slacker/stoner, Jeff Who Lives at Home will strike some as lightweight and meandering while others will find it charming. A strong optional purchase. [Note: Blu-ray extras include a bonus UltraViolet copy of the film. Bottom line: a pretty much extra-less package for this uneven dramedy.] (S. Granger)