There are solely so some ways to cover a physique, and there are solely so some ways a film like “Maturity” seems. Alex Winter’s amusing however slight movie is a wacky romp about intergenerational trauma and cycles of abuse, although that’s fairly apparent from any given promotional picture. As loopy because the film purports to be, there’s by no means an sudden second. Fortunately, this seems to be much less of an issue than it ought to be.
“Maturity” follows Noah and Megan Robles, two siblings whose mom has been left unable to talk after a stroke. Whereas wanting via the basement of their childhood residence, they discover a leak within the water heater and a horrible scent. Their investigation leads them to the rotting corpse of their outdated neighbor Patty Metzger (an excellent title for a personality whose moniker will cling over the remainder of the movie), who disappeared years in the past. As an alternative of calling it into the police, they resolve, in an effort to shield their household’s status and funds, to dump the physique in a quarry. After all, the pair’s makes an attempt to bury the previous solely cascade into additional collateral injury and moral compromise.
Over the previous 20 years of Black Record darlings and Edgar Wright rip-offs, the American movie business has established a brand new archetype of cinema full of quippy antiheroes, gory allegories for home strife, and character actors rattling off reference humor. The previous couple of years this have seen this subcategory trade its trendiness for a place as a respectable area of interest market with the lower-tier of foolish style programmers. In 2025, a film like “Maturity” — i.e., a Whedon-esque morality play the place one of many characters wears an Alamo Drafthouse shirt — is not cool or remotely notable. It’s the usual deviation of each film to play the Midnight part of a pageant. However I just like the Midnight part, and I discovered the film to be a completely amiable strategy to spend 97 minutes.
A lot of this hinges on a single load-bearing artistic resolution, one which turns into delightfully apparent just a few scenes in. In contrast to related tales, whereby characters usually recoil on the notion of replicating the faults of their dad and mom, the Robles are maniacally insistent that they need to, at any value to their well-being or the lives of others, comply with of their dad and mom’ footsteps. It’s their obligation to guard their mom’s legacy. They barrel recklessly previous a number of oppurtunities to free themselves from the results of their very own actions out of a cussed devotion to their very own toxicity. This method is far more enjoyable than the choice, and offers much more room to discover questions of familial duty and the distinction between care and self-preservation.
Such thematic problems current themselves, although in a confounding order, with unreliable consistency. Almost half the movie focuses on the extortion effort of the mom’s nurse (Billie Lourd). Her motivations, as somebody who resents being dehumanized by those that pay her to do what she believes is a baby’s obligation of care, are a worthy inclusion, however her scenes really feel like a slack waste of time in a narrative that calls for a sure degree of propulsion. Anthony Carrigan’s Bodie, the unpredictable cousin introduced in by Noah to intimidate her, is equally leveraged disproportionately. He lays naked the hypocrisy of the siblings’ insistence that they’re performing out of some familial obligation and never outright selfishness. However this could maybe be higher highlighted by the character performed by Winter himself. As Patty’s vagrant son, he delivers a heartbreaking and instantly commanding efficiency. Sadly, he has a complete of about 180 seconds of screentime, the proper foil to the sibling’s relationship is bizarrely deserted.
The opposite performances are uneven, although I’m unsure how a lot of that’s the script and the way a lot is Winter’s path. On one facet is Gad, who fares shockingly nicely. Noah is a debt-addled, nerdy middle-aged who feels completely emasculated by his lack of ability to get a challenge off the bottom. As somebody who has by no means been swayed by Gad’s specific model of obnoxiously chipper humor, Noah’s depressive snark finds him in a way more comfy register. He takes an unbearable caricature and turns it right into a convincingly regular man, even amidst all of the hijinx and bloodshed. Scoledeno, nevertheless, is ill-served by a script that offers her loads of element however no depth. Along with overlaying up a homicide or six, Megan obsessively screens her diabetic son’s glucose ranges and finds herself caught on the dangerous finish of a multi-level advertising scheme. Scoledeno is visibly distressed, however Megan’s motivations are frustratingly indecipherible till she lastly explains herself in voice-over.
All of that is maybe defined by the core flaw in “Maturity”’s building: each arc is outlined by if and when somebody chooses to lash out in violence, however stated violence is all the time irrational and inertly dramatized. Carrigan is, as all the time, a recreation performer. However Bodie, together with his room filled with swords and grownup braces, is the form of wacky drive that requires a readability of imaginative and prescient and Winter isn’t as much as the duty. The ending isn’t a twist, however it does backfill psychological details about the character of the sibling dynamic that might have labored infinitely higher if Galvn had discovered a strategy to seed these tensions sooner, or Winter a strategy to dredge them up through efficiency or mise-en-scene. Regardless of the premise, the film is with out a clear style. It’s not scary, it’s not thrilling, I don’t even know if I’d name it a comedy.
But I completely loved my time watching “Maturity.” No matter you name this sort of film, I discover it endearing. I believe its snarky faux-nihilism is cute and brings sufficient vitality to the proceedings to paper over its dramatic lurches. I just like the eagerness with which each idiosyncratic little bit of set design and each minor twist is introduced. I like sensing that somebody on-screen is about to commit manslaughter after which swear, the way in which you may inform a rom-com heroine is about to journey by the way in which she carries a stack of papers.
I like films like “Maturity.” There are many higher movies identical to it. However there are many worse ones, too. Plus, this one doesn’t have a single annoying needle drop. That has to depend for one thing!
Grade: C
“Maturity” premiered on the 2025 Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant. It’s at the moment in search of U.S. distribution
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