Adult Life Skills Movie Download

7 / 10

Ya gotta love movies about living in your parents’ shed
I can think of 2 fun comedies that involve characters who live in a shed: “Almost Sharkproof” (2014) and this one “Adult Life Skills”. Well then there’s also Silence of the Lambs but that’s something uh different.

As you might guess from the premise, “Adult Life Skills” is about a 30 year old woman who doesn’t know what to do with her life. Socially and emotionally stunted for reasons you will learn early in the flick, “Anna” (Jodie Whitaker) is an overgrown adolescent who spends her days talking to her thumbs and who can’t manage to put on a bra without severely embarrassing herself. With her 30th birthday looming, her mom gives her an ultimatum which is basically the entire plot of the film: move out of the shed. Get a life. And she has about 1 week to do it.

What we get is a cute, quirky, at times tragic, at times magical story about her reluctant attempted transformation into an adult. The film is very minimal, consisting of a shed, the bottom floor of a house, a childrens camp where she works, and the landscape of a tiny rural town where nothing seems to happen except that people occasionally die off. The whole production is marvelously carried by a witty script and some rapid fire banter in funny accents (I dunno, are they “accents”? Being from America I figure everything outside of Connecticut is an accent). The film’s narrow scope works tremendously to its advantage as we are forced to scrutinize small details of everyday life rather than epic dramas of wars and romance. Although there are tragic themes, it’s handled off camera so we see only how it affects the characters in an unspoken way. And although there is a slight romance angle here, it’s done in a hilariously awkward way (the snogging scene had me in stitches).

There aren’t too many films like this, but I might compare it to the excellent 2017 indie film “Izzy Gets the F* Across Town” which is entirely about a young woman trying to …get the f* across town. Here we have a story that could’ve had the alternate title “Anna Moves the F* Out Of Her Shed”. You’ve probably never seen a movie quite like this, so don’t miss it.Read More