Lone Star International Film Festival 2008

A wry comedy about Art, a frustrated musician, undergoing what he sees as a quarter-life crisis. This is not helped when his girlfriend dumps him and he has to move back in with his middle class parents-who are far from being thrilled with the idea. Art's only friend, agoraphobic Ronny, has his own problems. Holed up in a London flat in a daze of nitrous oxide and electro music, Ronny wants to start a band with Art and happy-go-lucky friend Nikki, but only if it involves going no further afield that the flat's roof garde. Art discovers self-help guru, Dr. Levi Ellington, author of It's Not Your Fault. Using his inheritance money, Art pays for Dr. Ellington to move in with him and his parents becoming Art's full-time life coach, and shadowing him wherever he goes. Art's painfully funny journey to define his existence brings to the fore the dysfunctional relationship he has with his parents and the importance in his life of his oddball friends. Rich in detail and dark yet affectionate humor, How to Be is a timely look at the increasingly common phenomena of grown-up children lving at home, frustrated creatvity and self-help.