Good movie, Melissa Leo horrible and annoying. Jesse eisenberg and Tracy Morgan are very good. I would say that you should watch it if you can handle horribly annoying people.... It is a good comedy with some romance and some slapstick. Emma Rayne Lyle delivers a great performance for such a young age. Sarah Ramos also delivers a good performance... There are some great moments sprinkeled throughout the film where both eisenberg and Morgan deliver performances and speeches well beyond their years. It is clear that Dorling and Nyswaner are good writers and directors. They only need to work on their casting choices a lot more for such a major role as the mother they should have found a better actress. But overall a good movie, but with a better casting of roles the likes of Leo it could have been great.

If this movie didn't hit home for some people, perhaps they've never grown up with an addict for a parent. While that's fortunate for them - for the rest of us who have - we can find some comfort in this movie, which somehow adds humor to an often painful experience.As I watched the movie, I was also convinced Melissa Leo must have interviewed my own mother for research. She was incredibly spot on - down to the hippie, disheveled clothing and hair, the premature strain of aging due to substance abuse, and all the associated wackiness. Despite it all, Melissa's character loved her children and wanted the best for them - her biggest challenge was learning how to keep it together. Even the family relationships with her perfect suburbanite sister, Jesse's character, and the pre-teen sister mimicked my own.I know people viewing my own life and that of my family can sometimes be horrified; I imagine this film produced the same effect for those who grew up with a more cookie-cutter existence. To those, I can understand why the plot and characters didn't thrill - but for me, I can attest this was/is an incredibly realistic view of my own family, right down to the Mother telling her son to watch his own self, because addiction is a "gene." The team who put this together is absolutely brilliant - brilliant because they depicted such a real and tragic situation in a funny, light-hearted way, through the eyes of someone who has been there and can chalk it up to life. I'd take this film any day over some Hollywood blockbuster, glittering up reality.

i kept overlooking this movie because one of it's stars is tracy morgan. never thought he was funny, never! and as this film is marketed as a 'comedy' surely the morgan character would not be funny to me. turns out not to be the case. he doesn't play a funny role!first, this story is not a comedy!!! second, it's a drama with moments of levity. third, why it is listed as comedy is a mystery to me.the struggle of the main character 'eli' to follow his piano playing dream, control his out of control mother, and trying to bring some level of normal life to his sister is the theme of this movie. eli has his own problems, but between his domestic obligations and his academic quest he has little time to address them.what we get is a mere look at what he must do in 24 hours if he is to remain sane and true to himself and take advantage of a great opportunity to start a career as am accomplished piano player.this movie may have it's weak moments but i doubt anyone can clearly point them out. i became very wrapped up in the eli character and his suffering with his mother and her 'supplier' friends, dealing with 'family', and becoming attached to a girl who obviously cares for him.this movie is well worth watching! but please do not expect a barrel of comic laughs. if you approach it expecting that you will be disappointed and end up missing a very well performed story.

"Why Stop Now" asks the question how far would you go to get into rehab? Eli (Jesse Eisenberg) is a smart kid, a piano prodigy, and is desperate to get his mother into rehab. His mother (Melissa Leo) is an annoying, high-strung coke-addict who has to go to rehab now or else Eli will never get to live his own life. The various plot descriptions available all get the rehab misunderstanding wrong, but it doesn't matter, it's ridiculous either way.Presumably a comedy, the movie goes to great lengths to create a story full of comedic mishaps. Most of them, especially the rehab misunderstanding, aren't funny enough and belong in a worse movie. Because the thing is this movie could be more aptly described as a bittersweet drama-comedy and the travails that Eli has to go through are actually pretty touching.Jesse Eisenberg is a really good actor. Prior to "The Social Network" (2010), I didn't really believe he was good (probably because of unfair superficial assumptions placed on him), but he may very well have mastered the drama-comedy balance. The script goes to extremes in manufacturing obstacles and misplaced hilarity. Melissa Leo takes on those extremes with her high-pitched self-righteous prattle and we wish she was locked in rehab at the very beginning. Tracy Morgan, surprisingly, plays his role more subdued than he has probably ever been before and the result is a drug dealer that doesn't produce any laughs.Eisenberg is able to make a couple of scenes very funny. In one, he acts as a Spanish translator for one drug dealer to another and finds an amusing balance between his book smarts and street smarts. In a later scene, he explains the difference between a pain in the ass and a pretentious pain in the ass to two high-strung screaming sisters. I'm thankful when he raises his voice to get them to shut-up.The mostly classical music score provides an interesting juxtaposition to the drug-fuelled comedy, but I'm not sure who "Why Stop Now" is supposed to appeal to. It doesn't have the same energy and comedy that popular releases "Horrible Bosses" and "21 Jump Street" have. But the bittersweet journey and the accomplishments by one actor in particular makes this a somewhat enjoyable and, thankfully, short ride.