‘Sacramento’ review: A fun millennial adventure worth the ride

Michael Angarano and Michael Cera bring a similar comedic vibe to “Sacramento,” a film that delves into the complexities of millennial fatherhood. While some of the jokes may fall flat, the movie excels in capturing nuanced emotions. The exploration of modern masculinity and shifting priorities is on point, as the two Michaels portray former best friends reuniting on a spontaneous road trip driven by grief and the anxieties of parenthood.

### What is “Sacramento” about?

The movie introduces us to Rickey and Glenn, two men at different crossroads in their lives. As they embark on a road trip from LA to Sacramento, they grapple with unresolved issues and confront their fears and insecurities. The journey is filled with genuine moments of joy and reflection, highlighting the challenges of growing up and accepting responsibility.

### “Sacramento” is about what millennial men have learned and forgotten.

Rickey and Glenn’s struggles with emotional maturity and self-awareness are central to the film. While they reject traditional notions of manhood, they struggle to define a new identity for themselves. The movie cleverly explores the disconnect between intellectualizing emotional issues and effectively dealing with them, offering a poignant commentary on modern masculinity.

### “Sacramento”‘s women deserve a larger spotlight.

Despite the strong performances by Kristen Stewart and other female characters, the film falls short in giving them substantial roles. The narrative focuses on men’s struggles at the expense of fully developing the female characters, highlighting the imbalance in storytelling. The movie’s exploration of masculinity is insightful, but it could benefit from a more inclusive portrayal of women’s experiences.

Men Behaving Badly

Rickey’s relationship with his father and Glenn’s with his son-to-be take center stage, unraveling each man’s psyche to the point that their behavior inconveniences (at best) and harms (at worst) the women around them. However, this harm ends up part and parcel of the movie’s comedic framing of events, and absorbing purely it as comedy requires disengaging from the lives of the movie’s female supporting cast. The moment one empathizes with any woman in the film, its comedic situations become absolutely nightmarish to even consider.

A Cautionary Tale

From a different point of view, Sacramento could be a horror movie about the way men lash out and how women are, intentionally or otherwise, caught in their crosshairs, but the film pulls back the moment this possibility arises. However, there’s only so much it can avoid the inevitable, leading to a disconnected climax where Glenn’s issues come to the fore in terrifying ways that the movie frames as just another humorous “oopsie.”

Sacramento, in effect, ends up as an accidentally striking embodiment of the blinders men put on when dealing with their own shit, which prevents them from recognizing the harm they cause, and the burden it can place on the women they care for. One way or another, it’s a worthwhile cautionary tale.