I haven’t seen Josh Gad in enough, and as someone who ultimately knows him from Frozen, I was very interested in seeing him in Adulthood at TIFF 2025. I wanted to see what else Gad could do, and then I was pleasantly surprised by the rest of the cast as an added bonus. This review will ultimately include spoilers, as I think Adulthood is too hard to critique without mentioning any significant plot points at all.
The film follows the story of Noah and Meg, siblings who live apart, after their mother suffers a stroke. We meet Josh Gad’s Noah as the child who moved away and is looking out for himself. Kaya Scodelario’s Megan, on the other hand, lives about 20 minutes from their childhood home, is a wife and mother of two, as well as a working woman. She has a lot on her plate and pays an aide worker to care for her ailing mother. To simplify the story, the two discover a body in their mother’s basement and decide to hide the body to protect their family, the home and ultimately themselves.
To speak to the actors, Scodelario is mostly a hit, but occasionally a miss. Her character goes through some major transitions, from wildly panicked to furious to cool, calm and collected. Her furious stage is the one I found the most trouble connecting with, and just didn’t feel authentic. However, when she makes the change to calm, it’s almost frightening. When she believes her family life is at risk, she no longer struggles with morals. Family is all there is, and you do anything for family.
“Adulthood is a little bit of everything.”
That is a central theme in Adulthood, almost to its detriment. Meg…and Bodie, who we will talk about later, are really the only people who care about family, and even then, it seems mostly about their image than their well-being. The message is darker than that. On the surface, the subject of family comes up a lot, but it feels like Adulthood better explores how people can crumble or thrive under pressure.
Examples like director Alex Winter’s character Doug crumbled under stress and utter trauma. Noah and Meg switch places from beginning to end, when real consequences are introduced, and it’s no longer about the money. The men seem to fall where the women, like Meg and Billie Lourd’s role as the home aide, thrive in chaos. Strong women are a very common theme at TIFF 2025.
Lourd and Anthony Carrigan play supporting roles. Lourd is cold and ruthless, and the catalyst for most of the story. Cardigan, however, is somehow sort of the moral line in Adulthood. He plays the wildly creepy, eccentric, flighty cousin, and between the two, they fill out the cast well, progressing the story forward. Lourd’s character likely could have been played by a number of people, but Bodie really needed Carrigan’s unique look and abilities.
Josh Gad’s range in Adulthood actually surprised me. Of course, I knew he was funny and could even see the cynicism, but there were moments of shock and sadness that were actually quite moving. Yes, this could also turn into a caricature of those feelings, too, but many times when he played it smaller, they felt so real. His character sees the opposite transition of Meg’s, from cold and collected to his descent into madness, and ultimately becomes a prisoner of the life he tried so hard to leave.
“Adulthood isn’t bad, but I would save this watch for streaming.”
At the end of it all, a part of me wonders if the entire film is just one of Noah’s scripts. As a struggling artist in LA, he has never been successful, and coming home to his old life, a sick mother, and a sister he barely knows anymore, Adulthood feels like Noah is putting his guilt on the page, with some embellishments about dead bodies, etc., to make it more “Hollywood.” I genuinely thought it was one of those “none of this really happened” movies, and though they never confirm it, I am still not sure it’s not.
Adulthood is a little bit of everything. Part comedy, part suspense, though a little predictable, it is also an interesting look at what happens to people under pressure. The film was entertaining enough, but not everything worked, and the balance between comedy and suspense never found its footing. It wasn’t enough to be hilarious or thrilling. Adulthood isn’t bad, but I would save this watch for streaming.
