At first it seems plausible that something happened to Mikey's flight, the excuse he gives his parents when he returns to their Tribeca home late at night. His plans to leave "tomorrow" to rejoin his wife and baby in California get iffier, and soon Mikey (a hilariously passive-aggressive Matt Boren) is flipping through his comic-book stash, trying on his old superhero cape, and inventing even more outrageous lies to prolong his visit. Mikey's mom continues to dote on him ("Can I get you some coffee? Tea? Soup? Coffee?"), while his dad regards him with a silent, bemused skepticism, but they can only be fooled for so long... if at all.

Azazel Jacobs' "Momma's Man" is a deceptively simple and wryly observed film about one man's panic over being a responsible adult. Shot in a leisurely mumblecore style, Jacobs allows gesture and expression to effectively convey more than words could. And though casting his own parents, avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs and his wife Flo, was a masterstroke, the star of the movie is their labyrinthine loft. Packed to the rafters with nooks, crannies, ladders, pulleys, and enough weird tchotchkes to fascinate a person indefinitely, it's not hard to understand Mikey's reluctance to leave.