Movies

‘Adult World’ delivers stellar John Cusack performance

In a week packed with ’80s remakes, it’s great to see one of that decade’s enduring icons, John Cusack, still working at the top of his game as a once-famous poet stalked by a wannabe Sylvia Plath (Emma Roberts) in Scott Coffey’s uneven little black comedy.

The tippling Cusack is darkly funny as he repeatedly, and snidely, disdains pleas to mentor Roberts. She works with minimal enthusiasm at a mom-and-pop (Cloris Leachman, John Cullum) porn shop, and rooms with a transsexual (Armando Riesco) after her parents nudge her out of the nest.

Set in a wintry Syracuse, “Adult World” proceeds by fits and starts, but fans of Cusack won’t want to miss his performance as the petulant poet, whose resistance is inevitably worn down by his persistent fan.