What if you went to a movie that moved along at a pace slower than waiting for a long day at work to end? If that is something that you might consider enjoyable, then "Momma's Man" is just the tonic for what ails you. Azazel Jacobs writes and directs and he has created a film that moves at an absolute snail's pace. There are three main characters: the thirty-something man/boy (Matt Boren), his father and his mother (Ken Jacobs and Flo Jacobs, the real-life parents of Azazel Jacobs). Off camera, Ken is an accomplished experimental filmmaker and retired professor. "Momma's Man" appears to be a tribute from son to parents. If it all sounds a bit odd, it is because odd is exactly what it is.
Mikey is visiting his parents at the home he grew up in, in downtown Manhattan. He has left his wife back in California to tend to their newborn. What starts out as a short visit becomes an unexplained lengthy stay that has no end in sight. Every time Mikey is supposed to fly home he comes up with a very phony excuse as to why he cannot go back. For the first few days it's a problem with airline tickets. When he runs out of marginally believable excuses he just stops calling his wife and turns off his cell phone so that she cannot reach him. If Mikey's parents are curious as to why this is all taking place they are keeping it to themselves. They know that something bizarre is taking place but choose to ignore it.
The star of "Momma's Man" is the apartment where all of the non-action is transpiring. It is almost dreamlike in its structure. Children's toys are everywhere, strewn among hundreds of unrecognizable electronic components, books, boxes and decorations that are real heavy on Kitsch. The director might be showing us what it was like to grow up with these people in reality and as crazy as it all seems it represents home to both Azazel and Mikey.
In the end, the film does take on some meaning and structure and is almost enjoyable to watch but the time spent reaching that point can be downright torturous. Azazel is no doubt trying to combine his father's famous experimentation with some standard movie-making in the hopes of coming up with something marketable. At that he fails, but there are enough moments here to justify seeing his next effort.
