Momma's Man

In Azazel Jacobs' drama Momma's Man, thirtysomething Los Angeles-based husband and new daddy Mikey (Matt Boren) returns to the cluttered Manhattan loft where he grew up for a visit with his parents (played by Jacobs' actual father and mother—experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs and artist Flo Jacobs), and then cannot leave. Males in various stages of prolonged adolescence are, of course, a staple of popular comedies, but the emotional dismantling of a grown man who returns to the nest and suffers from almost paralyzing desperation results here in a film that is a seriocomic combination of Thomas Wolfe's famous dictum that you can't go home again and Proust's nostalgic remembrance of things past (digging through the artifacts of his younger years, Mikey relives unresolved adolescent anger, rediscovers his comic books, and gazes at the narrow view of the street below his bedroom window). A curiously affecting portrait of a man slowly succumbing to an enervating depression that causes him to escape from his responsibilities into a comforting regression, this is recommended. [Note: DVD extras include an audio conversation with filmmaker Azazel Jacobs and his costar parents (50 min.), a 42-minute “Momma's Family” behind-the-scenes featurette, five minutes of deleted scenes, a “Capitalism: Child Labor” short film by Ken Jacobs (14 min.), Azazel's first film “Rain Building Music” (7 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a winning film.] (T. Keogh)