Movie review: 'The Sitter'

As a star vehicle for Jonah Hill (“Superbad”), a schlubby Everyman whose comic lineage runs from Fatty Arbuckle through John Belushi, John Candy and Chris Farley, this shambling comedy offers up an escalating series of absurd, ill-considered situations that get more bizarre, convoluted and implausible as the night rolls on.

The farcical, far-fetched story by first-time scripters Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka casts Hill as a likable, wiseacre slacker named Noah Griffin, who has been kicked out of college and lives at home with his desperate-to-date single mom (Jessica Hecht). To facilitate his mother's big night out, Noah reluctantly agrees to baby-sit the kids next door and finds himself in charge of an adolescent trio of dysfunctional little terrors.

There's the jittery Slater (Max Records of “Where the Wild Things Are”), a pill-popping neurotic with serious issues about his budding sexuality; tart little sister Blithe (precocious newcomer Landry Bender), a foul-mouthed, mascaraed, pint-size party girl; and adopted brother Rodrigo (Kevin Hernandez), a surly little sociopath with a penchant for dropping cherry bombs down toilets.

As the sitter and his unruly charges settle in for an uneasy evening of TV watching, Noah gets a call from his supposed “girlfriend,” the manipulative diva Marisa (Ari Graynor) urging him to join her at a hip downtown party — oh, and to pick up some nose candy along the way.

So Noah decides it's a good idea to load his three charges into their dad's pristine minivan and head out into the night to score some drugs.