SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Hayleigh Joseph This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Cissy Évelyne It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Michael Ledo There once was a girl from New York Who had never been porked She worked at a job Selling plastic knobs Then she lost it all to a dorkBilly Collins said we all have about 200 bad poems in us. Middle school and high school is a good time to get it out of our system. Amy (Emma Roberts) has about 20,000 bad poems in her and thinks she is good. She majored in poetry acquiring no jobs skills, setting back her parents $90,000. Depressed she moves out and gets a job at Adult World and hangs out with a crowd of fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Local poet Rat Billings (John Cusack) is her idol and she forces herself, to his dismay, into his life.The film is another luke warm indie dying to be clever and finding an audience, which it has among would be poets. Amy's dreary life is symbolized by the dreary scenes of a depressed urban area in upstate New York. The actors saved a bad script. The use of a cross dressing gay (Armando Riesco) was funny in "The World According to Garp," but now it just shows lack of writing skill and originality which is what I really want in an indie.

Priyanka S Why do people attempt metaphor when they clearly don't understand it! A so-so plot ruined by bad acting and direction. A movie about poetry, lacks so much of it. The director needs to educate himself about camera, and the editor needs to educate himself about cuts to be able to say anything. The over usage of hand-held cameras, is just annoying and wrong. When one cuts directly to a hand-held camera's footage, it immediately implies that it is a characters perspective. Which the reading in Rat's class scene, clearly isn't. Why keep Sylvia Plath poster in the same shot as when the audience and the character itself is calling herself a "whore". If the poster was placed much higher, with a wide-angle shot, it would have made some sense, here in the way it's done in the movie is plain ridiculous. As far as the movie's premise is concerned where the character is established to be toying with the idea of suicide has no impact whatsoever. As a result there is no curiosity built to learn more about the character by the audience ... Hence the premise gravely defeats its purpose. The only thing that manages to keep the film somewhat afloat is John Cusack's acting. All and all, the makers of the movie may have an appreciation for poetry in general, but clearly lack the knowledge of cinema vocabulary.

tieman64 Directed by Scott Coffey, "Adult World" stars Emma Roberts as Amy, a young woman who wishes to become a poet. Condescending, pretentious and without the wisdom, life experiences or talents necessary for the production of good art, Amy is looked down upon by Rat Billings (John Cusack), a middle-aged poet whom she admires."Adult World's" second half essentially watches as Amy suffers, becomes socially aware and learns to empathise with others. Only then, the film suggests, can she become anything other than a vacuous poser. As Rat Billings, a poet of substance, spends his days living in anonymity, Amy's future nevertheless looks grim. In the world of literature, even the best thanklessly toil.7.5/10 – See "Art School Confidential" for this material done better.

doug_park2001 ADULT WORLD is an odd whimsical comedy about Amy (Emma Roberts), a naive, sheltered,recent college graduate with an impractical degree in "Poetry" who yearns for publication and recognition but doesn't seem able to impress anybody anywhere. In desperation, she takes a low-paying job as a clerk in a sex store, which, though it serves as a symbolic backdrop for the story, isn't the real focus. This film is all about growing up, facing the world, and becoming, for better or worse, an "adult." Mood-wise, ADULT WORLD reminds me a bit of SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK: There's a name for this type of humor, but I'm not sure what it is. I wasn't digging it at all for most of the first hour. As others have noted, the characters seem more like cheap caricatures, and Amy in particular is treated as a glib joke of a person. But the way life (and this film) seem to be constantly laughing in her face gave me compassion for her, and I'm sure others will have the same reaction. We've all been there, haven't we? For most of its length, ADULT WORLD's storyline seems as unfocused as its character development. Yet, again, it meanders its way to a conclusion that is both meaningful and touching, and again, therein lies its magic.An interesting assortment of supporting characters, most of whom initially seem as cardboard as Amy herself but blossom as the film goes. Particularly noteworthy are John Cusack as reclusive a-hole writer Rat Billings and Evan Peters as nice normal guy coworker Alex. Austerely beautiful cinematography of the smaller town upstate New York setting. Good thematic soundtrack.