Momma’s Man

Instead of returning home after a business trip, Mikey (Matt Boren), a young husband and father, pays his parents a visit in Manhattan and settles back into the loft that was once his bedroom. His decision to stay there, leafing through childhood memories, looking up old friends and retreating to his adolescence is welcomed by his doting mother, arouses the suspicions of his father and confuses his wife.

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Deeper, darker currents move through Momma's Man, eddying around fears of letting go on both sides of the generational divide. The fact that [director Azazel] Jacobs has cast his own parents and filmed in the NYC loft in which he grew up only sharpens the film's teeth. Yet Momma's Man is gentle enough to be a comedy as well... One of the many layers of Momma's Man, though, is about the children of the 1960s East Coast avant-garde coming to terms with the fact that their lives will be less interesting, more bourgeois, than anything they grew up with. You can't blame Mikey (or Azazel, for that matter) for being scared.

David Jenkins, Time Out: Beautifully photographed on 16mm, Jacobs's film tracks a dearth of communication between the generations. He emphasises the silent despair felt by parents who are too ill-equipped emotionally and practically to offer help to troubled offspring. Yet, no voices are raised, no plates thrown - instead, awkward pauses and gestures and moments of self-examination give it a rich texture. (Verdict: five stars out of six) ·