Like most millennials, I grew up watching Michael Cera in films like Juno and Superbad. In my mind, he’s still that kid from the prancing Cera meme. So having him in films now where he’s a father is always a bit of a jump for me, mentally, but he also embodies those roles perfectly.

In Sacramento, Michael Angarano’s comedy about two estranged friends who go on a road trip to – you guessed it – Sacramento. On the surface, you may think of something like Due Date, and though it does have those moments, Sacramento is so much more. It’s sweet and earnest, and a little quirky. It has a lot more heart than I was expecting, and perhaps that’s why I ended up loving it as much as I did.

Glenn (Cera) is a first-time expecting father. His wife, Rosie (Kristen Stewart), is the level-headed one in the relationship. Glenn is, as we’re shown early on, full of neuroses. He worries too much, and he isn’t the best person to have in a crisis. But he tries, and you can see that his struggles run deep. Conversely, Rickey (Angarano) is impulsive and much more fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants.

Those sort of polar opposite personalities tend to play great against each other on screen, and Angarano and Cera inhibit them fantastically. Both men are looking for ways to ignore their own problems to focus on others’, and Rickey even goes so far as to invent a lie to keep Glenn on the trip with him.

Despite their clear differences and the fact that they haven’t talked to each other in years, Rickey and Glenn do still care deeply about the other. Angarano’s script is light, but that is not to say that it is truly lacking any depth. Sometimes less is more, and he nails that in Sacramento.

Finding your way back to someone you used to know

Though they both begin with a clear cavern of distance between them, it shortens throughout the movie in a natural pace. From one issue to the next, they ease back into each other’s lives, remembering how the other works and how to handle them. It’s realistic enough that, even with the issues that are still present between them, you easily believe it.

Sacramento is about growing up and realizing that you can’t keep running away from your problems. It’s about how we’re all a little messed up, and how that’s okay. That is indeed one of the best details of the film: At its start, Rickey is in group therapy that he eventually gets kicked out of because he isn’t taking it seriously. He uses humor to cope, as we see, which isn’t always necessarily the best approach.

Change is scary, as the film shows us. We all have to grow up eventually in one way or another, and it’s easiest when we let people in and face our own issues head-on. Angarano created an incredibly moving tale about change and acceptance that maintains a steady pace throughout; in fact, Rickey’s arc of growing into wanting to be there for Tallie (Maya Erskine, Angarano’s real-life partner) may be one of the best I have seen on screen. He has no idea what he’s doing, but that doesn’t stop him from being genuine in his desire to try. It isn’t something you see often, especially from a man like Rickey.

To change, you need to have help, Angarano tells us. Nobody can go through life truly alone, and when we let other people in the process is easier. Sacramento feels like one of those deceptively light-hearted movies that will take root in people’s minds and stay there for quite some time.

Sacramento premieres in theaters April 11.

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