All of us search for answers, especially about ourselves. This is even more so if we find out that truths accepted were lies. A relatively common experience in the real world and in cinema is the search for parents. Whether this be through adoption, abandonment, or loss, we all have a desire to know who we came from and how. Were they good people? If they gave us up, how could they do that without any contact? Will I be just like them when I get older? The questions swirl, and they have no answers, unless we can talk to them. And realistically, maybe not even then. But that will not quell the desire to just be there, to just know.
Adam The First focuses on the eponymous teenage boy (Oakes Fegley), living in a forest with his parents, James (David Duchovny) and Mary (Holly Bonney). In an excellent short scene between James and young Adam (Harrison Hughes), Duchovny calmly and empathetically explains that he is not his birth father, all while assuring him that he is loved and will always be cared for. He also details that his father abandoned him as an infant and that his mother died. Although Duchovny’s accent slips, the emotional resonance of the scene is enough to carry the film through its impending journey. Later, James gives him the name and address of three men, all named Jacob Watterson, one of whom must be his birth father.
With a few exceptions, Adam The First is a road movie with specific stops to question the three Jacob Wattersons (Eric Hanson, Jason Dowies, and Larry Pine). It is a movie carried mainly by the eyes of Fegley and, in this, it completely succeeds. Oakes Fegley is truly a rising star who takes this movie on his shoulders and is able to meet his many scene partners at exactly the right level. His achingly tender and wounded performance helps the audience through some questionable pacing and aural choices. Specifically, the score from Irving Franco and Michael Grazi is distracting, discordant, and full of bombast, which all feels quite out of tune with the story being told.
This is clearly an extremely personal project from director (and writer/producer/composer) Irving Franco. However, it becomes clear that he has a few too many ideas for one focused movie. There are beautiful moments visually that don’t quite fit, stunning as they are. He and cinematographer Daniel Brothers show off their prodigious talent, especially in moments that strain reality inside Adam’s head as he struggles on his journey. Additionally, when it comes to slow pans of the camera, there is a point of diminishing return. Franco seems to fly past this point, to the level that it leads to the audience feeling a growing sense of annoyance with the patience required.
Despite all of the effort to make this a visually memorable film, the quiet moments work the best. The scenes that focus the audience’s attention, almost without exception, are one-on-one conversations. Every interaction with the three possible fathers is full of poignancy, and each one for different reasons. One portrays righteous anger, another kindness, and then forgiveness But these all pale in comparison to one interaction between Adam and another character played by criminally underused actor, T.R. Knight. Both what is said and what is unsaid in this scene matter, and it is a master class from both Knight and Fegley. Even if you weren’t on board by this point, it would be a challenge not to be moved by this moment.
Adam’s journey, like all of ours, is one worth taking no matter the final outcome or destination. The people met along the way, all have an impact, even if they don’t have answers. For some problems, no answer will ever be good enough. Our journey is our own and we must find our way, all while remaining open to other people’s stories, as well. This movie teaches us that our own story, while important to us, is not the only story, and is sometimes not even true. We don’t have, and will never have, objectivity. The best we can do is find our truest selves along the way.
Adam the First is currently available in select theaters and on digital platforms courtesy of Electric Entertainment.
This movie teaches us that our own story, while important to us, is not the only story, and is sometimes not even true. We don’t have, and will never have, objectivity. The best we can do is find our truest selves along the way.
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Dave is a lifelong film fan who really got his start in the independent film heyday of the 90’s. Since then, he has tried to branch out into arthouse, international, and avant garde film. Despite that, he still enjoys a good romcom or action movie. His goal is to always expand his horizons, through writing and watching new movies.
