Sacramento
From the opening shots of Sacramento, Michael Angarano’s directorial debut makes it clear what kind of ride you’re in for — vibrant, warm, and humming with a kind of gentle desperation.
This could’ve easily been just another odd-couple-on-a-road-trip flick: one guy’s uptight, the other’s a mess, what’s gonna happen when they’re stuck together? We’ve seen that movie. Hell, we’ve seen it a hundred times. But Sacramento doesn’t take the bait. It kicks that tired setup to the curb and chooses tenderness instead — real, earned tenderness. The conflicts hit different. They’re quieter, more personal, and when they land, they leave a mark.
The cast is a quiet powerhouse. Michael Cera, who at this point could coast on awkward charm alone, digs deeper. He gives you a man fraying at the edges — raw, funny, and painfully true. We’ve seen midlife meltdowns before, but rarely this naked. Angarano, pulling double duty as lead and director, keeps the whole thing grounded. When his character finally cracks open, it doesn’t feel forced. It feels inevitable. It feels real.
Sacramento knows how broken people can be — even when they know all the right words, even when they know better. The film doesn’t lecture about mental health or sand down its rough edges. It just shows it, honestly, the way you only can when you’ve lived it. If you want a snapshot of what it feels like to struggle in 2025, this is it.
And then there’s the setting. God, it’s good to see a movie that’s actually shot in California. Not Croatia pretending to be Burbank, not Georgia in a bad wig. Real streets. Real sun. Little Dom’s and the Reckless Unicorn in Los Feliz popping up like old friends. The film industry’s been bleeding out of California for years — tax credits drying up, productions fleeing for cheaper pastures — but Sacramento feels like a love letter to what’s still here.
It’s a small movie, in the best possible way. It knows how long to stay, it knows when to leave, and it never wastes your time. Sacramento has already locked a spot on my favorite films of the year. I hope we get a lot more like it.