Weekend Screen Scene: Drop, Sacramento

First dates can be pretty harrowing experiences, but hopefully not as harrowing as the first date in Drop.

Violet (Meghann Fahy), the widowed survivor of an abusive relationship, has agreed to finally meet the man she's been texting with for months, leaving her young son with her sister as baby sitter. Her date is Henry (Brandon Sklenar, probably best known as the nice guy in another domestic violence tale called It Ends With Us), a photographer with the mayor's office. He's very polite, and very cute. All is going well until Violet starts to get some ominous "AirDrop" messages (here called "digiDrops") telling her unless she does what she's told, and does not tell her date what is happening, her son will die.

As tends to be the case with movies centered on technology, the tech in Drop is pretty preposterous, as is the notion that Henry would stick around for as long as he does once Violet starts acting completely insane, trying to keep what's happening to her secret. (She's constantly looking at her phone, leaving the table for various reasons, or asking to switch tables and then changing her mind.) But director Christopher Landon, who also directed the horror comedies Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2 U, knows how to keep the film fun and suspenseful, amping up visual tricks that keep you engaged, despite the action taking place in primarily one location.

Sacramento kept reminding me of a younger version of Sideways, but then I looked up the age Paul Giamatti was when he filmed Sideways, and turns out, he was 36! Which is the same age Michael Cera is! Mind blown! 

Now granted, I think Giamatti was actually supposed to be playing older in that movie, as Sideways is truly a middle aged crisis story, and Sacramento is closer to a quarter-life crisis story. Cera plays Glenn, who, with his wife Rosie (Kristen Stewart) are expecting their first child. He's doing his best to present a calm exterior about this impending life change, but Rosie knows better, and is clearly the more solid partner in this relationship.

When Glenn's old friend Rickey (Michael Angarano) shows up unexpectedly, Glenn is reluctant to have anything to do with him, but Rosie convinces him otherwise, thinking this reunion may help him out of his funk. Soon the two friends are on a road trip to Sacramento, ostensibly to scatter the ashes of Rickey's recently deceased father, a story that's not entirely true.

The best word to describe Sacramento is probably pleasant. It tells this story of two friends, both dealing with some heavy emotions they can't seem to express to each other, with a light touch, never getting too heavy, even when the subject matter can get a little dark. That owes a lot to the performances, which also includes a smaller role featuring Maya Erksine, and I'd gladly watch a spin-off or sequel that just focused on her entirely.