Big Time Adolescence

Big Time Adolescence centers on Mo, a sixteen-year-old trying to get through high school while leaning on his best friend Zeke, a charismatic college dropout several years older. Zeke is the former boyfriend of Mo's older sister, and though he genuinely cares about the younger boy, his guidance runs toward partying, drinking, dating and drug dealing. As Zeke's lessons take hold, Mo's well-meaning father tries to reassert control over his son's upbringing, and a plan to sell drugs at Mo's school puts the friendship under strain.

Jason Orley wrote and directed the film, his first stint in the director's chair. Griffin Gluck plays Mo, with Pete Davidson as Zeke, Jon Cryer as his father Reuben, and Sydney Sweeney and Machine Gun Kelly among the supporting cast. The production, from American High and LD Entertainment, runs 91 minutes.

On IMDb, the film holds a 6.9 rating from roughly 17,000 votes, and on TMDB it sits at 7.2 from a much smaller pool of about 400. A critics' rating of 6.7 from 84 reviews places it close to the audience scores rather than sharply apart. Orley went on to direct I Want You Back in 2022 and Pete Davidson: Turbo Fonzarelli in 2024.