Sacramento

Actor Michael Angarano's sophomore directorial effort is often very funny and moving in its own way.

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I’ve always had an affinity for the actor Michael Angarano. Even though he’s now an adult a lot of this stems from his childhood performance as young William Miller in Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous.” Watching William fall in love with music while thumbing through his sister’s record collection eyes full of wonder never fails to bring a tear to my eye as a fellow pop culture aficionado with a healthy (bordering on unhealthy) appreciation for the tactility of physical media.

Angarano shows us just how grown up he is by co-writing, producing and helming his sophomore feature “Sacramento” (in select theaters including AMC Indianapolis 17 beginning Friday, April 11), which comes six years after his directorial debut “Avenues.”

Angarano stars as Rickey, a free-spirited fella in his early-to-mid 30s. Rickey’s spontaneity is chronicled in the film’s opening scenes when he meets and hooks up with Tallie (Maya Erskine, Angarano’s real-life partner) during a nature hike.

We flash forward a year. Rickey’s doing work on himself in group therapy, but he’s running roughshod over the group to the point where his therapist (Rosalind Chao) wants to fire him from it.

Rickey’s reconciling with the fact that his Dad has died and reaches out to estranged childhood friend Glenn (Michael Cera) to accompany him on a spontaneous road trip from Los Angeles to Sacramento, Calif. to scatter his father’s ashes.

Glenn has his own issues. He’s recently been let go from his job just as his wife Rosie (Kristen Stewart, Angarano’s ex-girlfriend) is about to give birth to their first child. She makes enough money to float them, but Glenn’s wrapping his head around being a stay-at-home dad. He’s also in the process of trying to phase Rickey out of his life.

Rosie encourages Glenn to accompany Rickey and he reluctantly agrees. When in Sactown the guys meet and party with gym owners/roommates Arielle (former professional wrestler AJ Mendez) and Jess (Iman Karam) and Rickey even has intentions of reuniting with Tallie.

“Sacramento” as co-scripted by actor-writer Chris Smith reminded me a lot of Alexander Payne’s “Sideways” and Jesse Eisenberg’s recent “A Real Pain.” It isn’t as affective or effective as those films, but it sports winning performances and is often very funny and moving in its own way. It definitely won’t be for all tastes. Much of the movie is built around awkward situations and that will likely make some audience members uncomfortable. This didn’t bother me so much, but it did my wife.

I really dig that “Sacramento” feels like a family affair with Angarano’s father Michael Angarano Sr. showing up in a supporting role, Erskine’s father Peter scoring the picture and their son Leon Angarano also making an appearance.

My big takeaways from “Sacramento” are that women are often the voice of reason (duh!) and men need to come to grips with and healthily express their feelings (working on this one day in and day out). It also turned me on to the killer Ronnie Wood record I’ve Got My Own Album to Do, for which I’m grateful.