This Is Where I Leave You

⭐⭐⭐ ½ based on 1 review.

tl;dr: A lovely slice of life comedy with a superb cast and some brilliant moments of comedy.

Review

Spoilers Ahead: My reviews are not spoiler-free. You have been warned.

Jason Bateman, Adam Driver, and Tina Fey ‒ not doing some ridiculous character ‒ all together in an indie slice of life comedy? Yeah, I'm on board, and thankfully that cast only gets more interesting and equally excellent as you go down the call sheet.

The idea is simple enough: a family that has largely been held together by their father is left having to come back together for his funeral and the ensuing shiva ritual, a Jewish tradition of sitting for several days in a kind of extended wake, meeting and greeting the community, and generally processing their grief. Of course, no one in the family is particularly religious (including the father), so this really just acts as a format to highlight the various familial dysfunctions, bring to light several secrets, and forge new bonds between the disparate cast, their partners, and their old community as a whole.

The result is often hilarious, frequently heart-warming, and just real enough to keep it grounded. It's no slapstick comedy; the laughs here come from subtle character moments and single lines, which the cast all deliver wonderfully. And there are no clear lines between "good" and "bad"; each character is nuanced and fucked up in their own unique way.

But it's well paced, well acted, solidly written, and a general delight to watch. Well worth the time.