The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureMovie reviews

Adult Life Skills

Adult Life Skills | Movie review
20 June 2016
James Fisher
Avatar
James Fisher
20 June 2016

Movie and show review

James Fisher

Adult Life Skills

★★★★★

Release date

24th June 2016

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

At some point in everyone’s life, whether it be after university, school, or further education, the conveyor belt that was happily guiding us through life comes to an end. The linear progression of education and exams fizzles, and off we slide, into the howling abyss that many like to call adult life. Writer director Rachel Tunnard is acutely aware of this fact and draws upon that anxiety and fear in her superb directorial debut, Adult Life Skills.

Exploring the idea that adults should be given badges for completing adult tasks (similar to the badges received for girl guides and scouts), Adult Life Skills follows Anna (Jodie Whitaker), a sad and confused 29-year-old living in a shed at the bottom of her mother’s garden. Anna clearly isn’t ready to be a grown-up yet, despite the looming threat of her 30th birthday, and instead prefers to make videos using her thumbs. In a shed. In her mother’s garden. The complexities of modern life seem all too much for Anna and, despite the best efforts of her mother, she refuses to grow up and get on with life, clinging to the last bastions of home comfort for as long as she possibly can.

The beauty of this narrative is that it is something the audience can immediately relate to. Everyone can remember the moment their parents stopped doing their laundry, and when coming downstairs at 11am on a Tuesday was met with a scowl of disapproval rather than a nice cup of tea and a painkiller. There’s a little of Anna in all of us, and as such the audience can easily understand her resistance to all things adult.

Fuelled by an excellent storyline that pulls the protagonist further and further out of her comfort zone, as well as a superb supporting cast, Adult Life Skills is funny, emotional and rewarding, but in no way overpowering. There is often a temptation to blast the audience with laughs or sadness, but Tunnard instead chooses to use each lightly, and it makes the film feel very real.

Adult Life Skills genius lies in its broad appeal. The audience empathises, despite the absurd situation in which Anna finds herself. With a simply stunning score, and with the prestigious Nora Ephron prize for best female director at the Tribeca film festival already under its belt, Adult Life Skills is a must-watch for those who feel that maybe they haven’t quite fully got the hang of this “adulting” thing just yet…

★★★★★

James Fisher

Adult Life Skills is released nationwide on the 24th June 2016.

Watch the trailer for Adult Life Skills here:

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

The Dissident

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

Moxie

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

Notturno

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

The Winter Lake

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Lucky

★★★★★
Jacob Kennedy
Read More

Justine

★★★★★
Abbie Grundy
Read More

Foster Boy

★★★★★
Jim Compton-Hall
Read More

Crazy About Her

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

Bigfoot Family

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

James Fisher

Adult Life Skills

★★★★★

Release date

24th June 2016

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • I’m Your Man (Ich bin dein Mensch)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Black Bear
    ★★★★★
    Glasgow
  • Celebrate International Women’s Day with a Bombay Sapphire Cocktails & Create masterclass
    Food & Drinks
  • Spotlight: Lauren Everet and Soup Kitchen London, striving for food security and social equality
    Food & Drinks
  • Bicep at Saatchi Gallery Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • “At school, I always asked myself what my teachers were really like as human beings”: Director Maria Speth on Mr Bachmann and His Class
    Berlinale
  • Voice of Silence
    ★★★★★
    Glasgow
  • Delectible drinks that would make the perfect Mother’s Day gift
    Food & Drinks
  • The Dissident
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • “I am not the kind of actor who is really interested in mimicry”: Tom Schilling on Fabian – Going to the Dogs
    Berlinale
  • The Dissident
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Guzen to sozo)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Moxie
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Souad
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • We (Nous)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Meltdown: Guy Garvey at the Royal Festival Hall | Live review
Elvis and Nixon | Movie review