Pete Davidson Nails the Tragic, Perpetual Man-Child in ‘Big Time Adolescence’

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Big Time Adolescence on Hulu.

Remember like, ten days ago, before the pandemic ended life as we know it? Back when people cared about things like John Mulaney hosting Saturday Night Live and the running time of the new James Bond movie? One of those things people cared about was Pete Davidson in his new movie, Big Time Adolescence, which dropped on Hulu a week early last Friday. In case anyone still cares about that, I’m here to tell you that Davidson is good in the movie, in part because it’s a role that builds on his public persona as a stoner college drop-out. And given that his character ultimately has a tragic ending in the film, it’s both uncomfortable and fascinating to watch.

Written and directed by Jason Orley, Big Time Adolescence premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2019 and was picked up by Hulu shortly after. American Vandal‘s Griffin Gluck stars as a high school teen named Mo, who befriends his older sister’s boyfriend, Zeke (Davidson). Zeke is pretty much the opposite of a role model—he steals alcohol from Mo’s parents while babysitting, swears profusely, and hot boxes in his car with Mo in the passenger seat—but he makes Mo feel like a cool kid, so they stay friends long after Zeke and Kate (Emily Arlook) break up.

The longer their friendship stretches on, the more clear it becomes that Zeke’s influence is not just bad for Mo but has the potential to ruin his life. It starts small—like when Zeke convinces Mo to drink a disgusting concoction of whiskey, beer, and ecstasy—but quickly escalates when Zeke asks Mo to sell weed at a high school party. In the end, perhaps unsurprisingly, Mo is expelled. Zeke half-heartedly attempts to take the fall for him, but in the end, he isn’t able to grasp the gravity of the situation. While Mo starts over at a new school, his lesson learned, we’re left with the sense that Zeke will never change his ways. He knows he’s being left behind by his peers, but he just can’t seem to get on a path that’s not smoking pot in his living room night at night.

Davidson is very good in Big Time Adolescence, which is his first major lead role in a movie. As Zeke, he maintains a willful ignorance that tells viewers he’s not making these poor life choices because he’s an idiot—he’s doing it because he’s lazy. If he just keeps pretending to be happy and indifferent, then maybe everyone around him won’t expect anything more. Davidson lets just the barest slivers of regret and shame peek through when Mo finally drops the bomb on him that he’s been expelled. But then in the final scene—when Mo goes to visit Zeke at his new fast-food job—that oblivious veneer is back on his face.

The level of authenticity to Zeke that Davidson, who is a 26-year-old college dropout himself, is almost uncomfortable to watch. It’s hard to separate the character from the actor when Zeke dresses exactly Davidson, dyes his hair platinum blonde like Davidson, talks like Davidson, and hangs out with his buddy Machine Gun Kelly like Davidson. When Davidson is giving tours of his basement man cave full of alcohol and video games, it’s hard not to feel like he’s so good at playing the perpetual man-child character because he is that character.

The difference, of course, is that you’d be hard-pressed to argue the real Davidson is a failure. He’s a college drop-out who smokes weed on the regular, and he’s also a hugely successful comedian with a popular Netflix special and a weekly gig on a little show called Saturday Night Live. Big Time Adolescence makes the case that the life of a perpetual stoner is a bad one. Zeke doesn’t get a happy ending.

…But Davidson’s comedy career might disagree.

Watch Big Time Adolescence on Hulu