Michael Cera and Dustin Guy Defa on The Adults

This week, Film Comment is reporting from Berlin, where the 2023 Berlinale is currently underway. Throughout the festival, we’ll be sharing daily podcasts, dispatches, and interviews covering all the highlights of this year’s selection, including new films by Christian Petzold, Angela Schanelec, Hong Sangsoo, James Benning, and many more. On today’s episode, FC co-deputy editor Clinton Krute sat down with writer/director Dustin Guy Defa and actor Michael Cera to discuss The Adults, which just had its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale. The film tells the story of Eric, a youngish man returning for a quick visit to the upstate New York town where he grew up. As he struggles to reconnect with his two sisters, played by Hannah Gross and Sophia Lillis, his obsession with poker, and his drive to beat every player in town, keeps prolonging his stay. The nuanced performances of the three leads, along with Guy Defa’s precise dialogue, pull the film off center, destabilizing what might otherwise have been a fairly familiar drama of family reconciliation. Instead, The Adults is something far stranger and resonant.