A naive college graduate, Amy, who believes she's destined to be a great poet, begrudgingly accepts a job in a shop while she pursues a mentorship with reclusive writer Rat Billings.
It is genuinely funny and surprisingly touching by the end, which is more than can be said for most of Hollywood's efforts of late.
Independent Online (South Africa)
March 07, 2016
There is potentially a good movie bubbling under the surface in the interaction between Amy and Rat and especially in the hinted-at desperation of her struggle to make a success of her life, but this is overtaken by the tedious melodramatic whining.
Adult World goes all kinds of satisfying places and the lowercase niceties begin with knowing how to use Emma Roberts' eyes, and their bright, darting gaze, which can flick from irritation to consternation to fury just like one-two-three.
It's packed with independent-film cliches, yet director Scott Coffey manages to rise above them, thanks largely to the performances of Emma Roberts and John Cusack.
The movie is rated R, yet sensitive 12-year-old girls and the boys scared to talk to them probably represent the ideal audience for this wan coming-of-age sitcom in feature-film drag.
Cusack is fabulously droll as the reluctant mentor, while Armando Riesco delivers a touchingly off-kilter performance as the drag queen who also provides the heroine with lessons in life.
