Everyone remembers the uncertainty of those childhood Saturday nights when your parents got all dolled up, went out on the town and left you home alone with a babysitter for a couple of hours. Typically, this meant a night filled with a few rounds of Monopoly, a medium pizza from Domino's and, in my case, four to five hours of averting eye contact and conversation. No big deal.
In "The Sitter," director David Gordon Green's latest addition to his oeuvre of misadventure stoner flicks like "Pineapple Express" (2008), Noah (Jonah Hill) takes a slightly different approach to babysitting, trading in the typical babysitting agenda for a wild and oh−so−believable night of pipe bombs, coke deals, car chases and self−discovery.
The film introduces Noah as the quintessential slacker with a heart o' gold. A recent college dropout, he splits his time between his mother's couch and his pseudo−girlfriend Marisa's (Ari Graynor) beck−and−call. When his mom lands her first hot date since his father left, Noah reluctantly accepts a babysitting gig so she can have the night free to schmoose.
He soon meets the Pedulla children, the sticky−fingered embodiment of a babysitter's worst nightmare. Slater (Max Records) is an anxiety−riddled Bieber look−a−like who spends most of the film clutching his fanny pack of psychopharmaceuticals. His quick−witted nine year−old sister, Blithe (Landry Bender), dresses like she's straight out of a Ke$ha video, while Slater's adopted El Salvadorian brother, Rodrigo (Kevin Hernandez), opts out of playing Battleship in favor of building actual explosives.
Reminiscent of "Superbad" (2007), the more recent "Take Me Home Tonight" (2011) and so many other films of the genre, Noah's desire to get laid is what gets the night going in the wrong direction. When Marisa calls and promises sex in return for party favors, Noah sees no other option than to drag the rug−rats right out of their footsy−pajamas and into a drug−filled night of New York City debauchery. While most audience members could guess what kinds of events will transpire, "The Sitter" squeezes some genuine laughs out of the familiar situations that play out.
The appeal of storylines that turn what should be an ordinary evening into a chaotic night where everything that can go wrong does is understandable. However, the fact that Noah is able to leave stolen cars, drug possession and multiple assaults in his wake without any actual consequences or even consideration of possible consequences speaks to the unrealistic nature of the film. "The Sitter" infuses some sentimentality into the otherwise superficial plot when Noah and the children are able to walk away from their life−changing night a little less neurotic, a lot more hopeful, and surprisingly without any criminal records. Even though the characters may learn a moral or two by the film's end, these resolutions feel tacked on and do little to enrich the film.
Writers Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka do manage to spice up the been−there−done−that plotline by sprinkling the script with some truly notable characters. Perhaps the most intriguing performance in the movie comes from Karl (Sam Rockwell), the bipolar drug dealer whose persona seamlessly transitions from disturbingly friendly to greedy and violent. Hill, in true man−child form, plays to his self−deprecating strengths and engages in remarkably funny dialogue with the children throughout the film. All three child actors manage to be quite entertaining, especially Bender, whose performance serves as a case study for the negative consequences of watching too much TMZ.
While "The Sitter" fails to deliver any notable nuances to the classic slacker journey story, it is a satisfying 81−minute comedy that is sure to make you either laugh or feel grateful that you no longer need a babysitter. Maybe a little of both.
