Sacramento Review: Michael Angarano's Affable Road Trip Dramedy Follows a Familiar Route

      With an endearing, natural charm as a performer that resonates throughout his relaxed directorial style, Michael Angarano's second feature, Sacramento, is a lighthearted, wandering road trip dramedy that thrives on its main performances, featuring Michael Cera alongside Angarano, who plays strained best friends. While delving into themes of fatherhood, mental health, and the falsehoods we tell ourselves (and others) to keep moving forward, Angarano and co-writer Chris Smith may not offer a wealth of new insights on familiar themes, but there is enough clever comedic timing and dramatic insight to make this journey enjoyable.

      Cera’s character, Glenn, is more anxious about the imminent arrival of his child than his wife Rosie (Kristen Stewart) is. He seeks a distraction from the growing mental and physical preparations. Even though Glenn is in the process of distancing himself from his unreliable, intermittently attentive best friend, Rickey (Angarano), Rickey appears at his home, guilt-tripping him into joining a trip from Los Angeles to Sacramento to scatter the ashes of his recently deceased father. Rickey's sneaky deceit regarding the trip's true purpose becomes clearer to Glenn, leading to a tension over their respective moral righteousness and the belief that they can help fix each other's problems. Although Glenn seems to have his life under control, the film humorously portrays the realization that both men are grappling with their own crises.

      Cera, continuing his collaborations with Angarano after Mark Webber's The End of Love and as a composer on Angarano’s directorial debut, Avenues, is charming as a devoted husband who quickly admits to some “morally ambiguous behavior” when talking with another woman about his “closed marriage” from the night before. In comparison to the male leads, Maya Erskine and Stewart have smaller roles that may feel underappreciated, yet it’s refreshing to see two female characters managing their own lives independently of their partners, whether present or absent. As a director, Angarano exhibits a sharp comedic timing throughout, from jokes about how far Los Angeles is from Sacramento to an unceremonious scattering of "ashes," and the sight of their car being towed while they enjoy a meal at a diner.

      However, in the final stretch of Sacramento, the goodwill built towards the likably flawed characters begins to diminish. In a heightened moment, Glenn makes an erratic choice that feels inconsistent with the character we’ve grown to understand, breaking the immersive quality of the experience and challenging the audience's sense of believability. This inconsistency might stem from the charm Cera carries from his time on Arrested Development, but it negatively impacts the script. Still, it doesn’t completely undermine Sacramento, a dramedy that may seem predictable in hindsight and concludes too neatly but still radiates warmth and humor in the key moments.

      Sacramento will be released in theaters on Friday, April 11.