Jeff, Who Lives at Home

Directed by Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass

(R)

Fans of quirky, uncomfortable comedies should find this movie “a small delight,” said Bill Goodykoontz in The Arizona Republic. Jason Segel and Ed Helms are terrific as brothers we might find annoying in real life. Segel’s Jeff is a 30-year-old stoner who lives in his mother’s basement; when he’s sent on an errand, he becomes enlisted in determining if the wife of his high-strung brother is cheating. Writer-directors Jay and Mark Duplass have grown up since making such “meandering and messy” earlier films as Cyrus and Baghead, said Stephen Whitty in the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger. But you still wish that they’d invested in a better cinematographer. These two “mumblecore” auteurs “remain better with concepts and performers than a cohesive visual style.” Even so, “hang in there,” said Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News. As the brothers’ mother, Susan Sarandon “provides a nice sketch of a late-in-life bloomer,” and Segel reveals Jeff to be harboring unexpected depths. The movie might not completely hang together, but its message, “if you look at it the right way,” is endearing.

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