Avocado Toast Review

Have you ever had found yourself in a discussion with someone from an older generation who is complaining about all the young kids of today and erroneously refers to them as Millennials? And you end up super frustrated, not just from what that person had to say, but because they lumped you as a true Millennial in with Gen Z? Us millennials don’t like that. There is a definite generational gap between Millennials and Gen Z, yet some people think of Millennial as synonymous with young people, which is a wildly false misconception. 

Or better yet, have you ever talked to a person who is making fun of Millennials, yet doesn’t realize they are one? That one is rather amusing. And is the exact premise of Tyler Farr’s new comedy “Avocado Toast.” A guy named Adam is having an argument with his friends about Millennials when he learns, much to his shock and dismay, that he is one. He suffers a bit of an identity crisis and decides to go down quite the rabbit hole in discovering and accepting his new found Millennialism, essentially upheaving his whole life and finding a new sense of freedom when he feels he can do what he wants to do instead of living a rigid, boring life.

“Avocado Toast” is a movie that I’ve been following for quite some time now. Writer and director Tyler Farr is a good friend of mine. We connected in 2013 and stayed in touch partially due to our shared love of film, him being on the filmmaking side of things and me being on the journalism side of things where I love writing about and reviewing movies. In 2015, he let me be one of the first to watch and review his movie “Winning Formula” and now here we are six years later with his next film. It’s been great watching this movie go from a simple idea to now a fully completed film. And now comes the challenge to sum all that up into one review, which is a lot more daunting of a task when I know the person who made the film is most definitely going to read everything that I write about it.

Naturally this gives me a slightly different perspective than the random Joe Schmoe who randomly stumbles on this, but it’s also been a good mental exercise in remembering that every movie that’s been made is someone’s life work. Even if I don’t like it, I should remember to always respect the effort that went into it. I’ve had a few occasions over the years to talk to a filmmaker about a film they’ve made and that results in a different experience because I get a peek into what went into the project. Yet regardless of whether or not I talked to a filmmaker or witnessed it get made, every movie has a similar story.

I could go down this rabbit hole for quite some time, but those of you who clicked this link did so to read a review, not listen to me philosophize about the process of filmmaking or how we should approach critiquing something. So we move on. And my one challenge from Tyler when he asked me if I wanted to review this movie is to be open and honest. So that is exactly what I will set out to do. But in a positive way that will be helpful for everyone.

Justin Ray in "Avocado Toast"

And if we’re being honest here… I watched an entire movie called “Avocado Toast” and did not see one single person eat any avocado toast. I demand a refund!

I also heard people in this movie talk about Millennials being people who were born between 1982-2004. I had to pause the movie on that one and go double check. While the character of Adam in the movie was shocked to learn that Millennials go all the way back to 1982, I was a bit taken aback that the range went all the way up to 2004. In doing my research, the movie isn’t necessarily wrong. 1982-2004 is an age range that some people put on Millennials, but 1981-1996 seems to be a more widely accepted range. And that’s one that makes a lot more sense to me personally. There’s definitely a massive difference between those of us born in the 80s and early 90s than those born in the late 90s and 2000s. In my book, Gen Z starts with people born in 1997. That goes back to my conversation at the beginning.

Anyways, if those were the only two complaints I had about this movie, I’m sure Tyler would be jumping for joy that he won me over because I didn’t necessarily praise his last movie as much as he probably hoped I would. But unfortunately I do have my issues with this movie. We’ll get to those in a bit, though. I want to start with positivity.

Despite me being a dork about the title, that actually is a strength. It’s a perfectly titled movie that grabs people’s attention. And it’s a clever subject matter. A movie about Millennials is a movie that will pique the interest of us Millennials. I’ve actually seen several reactions from people who do fall into the Joe Schmoe category. It’s a movie about their generation that has them interested. And there’s a lot of clever, funny references that people will get a kick out of. I particularly got a chuckle out of the Christopher Columbus reference. That’s an argument that we now have every year. You could say it’s a Millennial discussion.

I also liked the performances from our lead characters. Justin Ray is the actor who plays Adam, the movie’s main character. And my goodness is he having an absolute blast in this role. Is it fully realistic for a guy who’s been married for 10 years with a successful career and a happy family to drop everything and change his life because he learned he belonged in a different generational category than he thought? Not really, but Justin Ray owns this character and relishes in everything he’s given to do. Having a likeable lead character goes a long way in forgiving some of the other bumps along the way. Likewise, did I enjoy the fact that he started cheating on his wife by dating another girl? Not really. But goodness is Mikayla Iverson, the girl who plays his new crush, a charming and loveable character.

On the flip side, his wife Jennifer, played by Jyllian Petrie, is also a loving and charming woman. Thus while I’m not sure from a story perspective that certain things really make sense, we have ourselves caught up in a love triangle between a lead male who is quite fantastic and two lead females who are equally as fantastic. There eventually came a point where I felt that the movie needed to stop being so silly and goofy and start having consequences to the dumb things this guy was doing or else the plot was going to completely lose me. And it did. When all three of these leads were asked to stop being silly and start getting emotional, it actually got me. I felt for Adam when he realized he made a lot of mistakes and wants to start fixing things. I felt for Jennifer when she wanted her husband back. And I felt for Sydney, the new crush, when she started to learn who this guy really is.

Mikayla Iverson and Justin Ray in "Avocado Toast"

What didn’t work as well for me was everything around these three, unfortunately. While there were a lot of clever things that were happening in the movie, there was also a lot of things that I didn’t think were as clever or funny. That right there is the nature of comedy, though. Every once in a while you get a movie that makes you laugh hysterically throughout, but those are more rare. Even the funniest of comedians have jokes that don’t land and most comedies can be hit and miss. Comedy is something that’s refined over time. Comedians or comedy writers have to live and learn. Take a shot, see what works, and fix things or throw things out that didn’t work. There was just a lot more miss here than I was hoping for.

For one, I personally don’t like poop jokes in my movies. And this movie has an extended poop joke gag that plays throughout. Maybe some will laugh. I thought it was gross. But it kept going. Then kept coming back. I also didn’t like pretty much anything with the friend named Connor. Maybe a lot of Millennials will relate to having roommates or friends like that, but I just kinda found him out of place and distracting. Also, some of the other side characters were a bit too exaggerated. The world’s rudest cashier, the world’s most incompetent care salesman, and the coworker who hordes all the fruit snacks are maybe people that represent real life human beings that we’ve seen, but they were exaggerated to the point where they didn’t feel like real human beings to me. Maybe those jokes will land with some, but not for me.

We also had a hard time balancing the comedy and drama. Like I referenced earlier, there came a point where I was hoping the movie would start having consequences to the silliness. And while it did eventually and that drama worked, the drama could’ve been more impactful if it was allowed to grow a bit more. Then we had a few bait-and-switches that I don’t want to get too much into where I think we undercut the drama that was working just to get a few extra laughs in. I was actually feeling sentimental and good. But the movie didn’t quite see it through in a way that was fully satisfying.

But like I said, those complaints come with the nature of comedy and are quite subjective. Balancing comedy and drama one of the age old questions with filmmaking. I’m not sure there’s a perfect formula that pleases everyone. And I’m a bit more of a Grinch, anyways, when it comes to comedy. I like laughing, but there are so many modern comedies that just aren’t funny to me, so maybe take what I say about comedy with a grain of salt.

Nevertheless, despite being a bit rough around the edges with some of the jokes and many of the side characters, I still honestly think that the majority of the movie remains solidly intact. I loved just about everything with the main three characters and it was a solid premise that lands in a lot of ways. A noticeable improvement from Tyler’s last outing, in my opinion. If you want to give a chance, you can check it out on pretty much any PVOD platform where you rent and buy movies. Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV, Vudu, etc. I observed on Google TV that it could be rented for $4 and purchased for $9. So if you want to support Tyler or you want to check out a silly movie about Millennials, I recommend you give this one a chance!

Grade: 8/10