Elliot is a young love-starved 21 yo in search of a real relationship. He's a goofy, energetic, likeable Romantic (with a capital R) with a bad history of hookups and failed relationships; paralleling that of his mother's disastrous love life.
Elena Goode deserves special mention as his mother who is the real emotional core of the film. She's amazing, charming and mesmerizing as a young single mother trying to hold on to her youth and dreams yet constantly finding the wrong boyfriend. And poor Elliot has to put up with that.
There's even a montage of Elliot reuniting wih a failed hookup side by side with his mother's backstory of dating a BMOC and getting dumped with a pregnant Elliot in spire of her mother's warnings. Both Goode and the actor playing Elliot's emoting during this scene are the reason to watch this movie.
The director makes some really weird choices such as having young Elliot bare-bottomed on the toilet telling his story as if it were an interview and there are random animated scenes probably meant to hide the low budget. The other actors are flaky and campy but this IS a comedy first, drama second so expect Elliot not to end up the same as his mother and have the 'heppy ever after' ending one can expect.
There a lot of terrible films out there but happily this is not one of them though it could be better. Let Elliot and his family charm their way into your hearts and maybe you'll see yourself in them.
Look for a young pre-Queer Eye Antoni Porowski as one of Ma's lovers.
