By Jacob Peterson

Sacramento was abuzz with the news of a film being shot on location throughout the city in the spring of 2023.

“Sacramento” is a fun take on the usual road trip comedy. If you’ve seen any of the trailers for the movie, you may be expecting something a bit wackier than the actual finished product, but what you get is a heartfelt dramedy with good performances. 

The movie follows a pair of friends, Ricky (played by Michael Angarano, who is also the director and writer) and Glenn (Michael Cera), as they take an impromptu road trip from Los Angeles to Sacramento in a one-sided attempt to reconnect. Both 30-somethings have reached critical points in their lives, and the estranged buddies are forced to confront various anxieties that adult life comes with.

In “Sacramento” the comedy doesn’t take center-stage, but the fill will still elicit a few good chuckles. Anxiety is a major part of this movie and it tries to handle the topic in a mature way, though at times the tone can be non-serious.

With the film “Sacramento” hitting theaters on April 11, Angarano and co-writer Chris Smith sat down with Solving Sacramento about making the film; how they decided to film on location, what spots they wished could have been in the film and how their past writing and directing experience contributed to the project.

You both have mentioned how the inspiration for this film was an actual road trip from LA to Sacramento. When did you come to the decision to actually film on location here?

Angarano: The dream was always to try and shoot here on location. There was an iteration of when we were trying to put financing together where the money that we had was predicated on a tax break and they asked us if we could shoot in Georgia.

But then when we were actually faced with it I was just like, “Why?” Are we gonna try and fake it for California? Are we going to try and maybe change the script? Why don’t we just call the script Savannah or Athens?

Smith: It was a relief when it fell through because we were like, “Gosh, we get to do it the way we wanted to.”

Angarano: A hundred percent, and then when we were actually in production and we knew we were able to shoot in Sacramento I was just trying to get as much time here as possible and I’m so glad we were able to.

Where are some of the places you had in mind from the start, like “I want this place to be in the movie,” as far as locations go.

Smith: When we came here we fell in love with a lot of places. The Tower Bridge — we wanted that somewhere. We had a whole sequence, actually, in the State Capitol Museum, which we really wanted to film there. We had a whole chase sequence, it was really great, but we just had to cut that for time. 

We went bar hopping on K street and that was really fun, we included that in the movie too. We learned a lot too — we talked with the locals and included some character color based on conversations we had with some of the people who are from here.

Angarano: Really, the entire wrestling sequence was born out of our trip to Sacramento. When we came here in 2017 we went bar hopping, like Chris said, and we went to one of these bars that was owned by a fighter; an old — retired MMA fighter. We got into a whole conversation with them and they were like, “Yeah, there’s a really big MMA community here.” And so that entire sequence was not wrestling, and the women — the characters — were not former fighters, but that changed after our trip to Sacramento. 

You mentioned that you wanted to film at the State Capitol but that didn’t really pan out. Were there any other scenes that you were worried about being able to find a location for?

Angarano: One of the hardest locations to find was the opening of the film, which is the lake, that was always something really hard for us to find. We ended up shooting that in Sly Park, which is like 45 minutes outside Sac, maybe an hour-ish?

I only saw pictures so when we first drove up to that location it was the first time I had ever physically been to that location and we had to film the beginning of the movie there and film part of the end. That ended up being another cosmic blessing for us because it was so perfect.

You’re both co-writers on this movie but “Sacramento” isn’t your first writing credit. How did those past writing experiences lend themselves to this film?

Smith: You learn with every project and we brought that with us. Another thing about writing an independent movie is that you’re only constrained by your own ideas. We constantly had budget in the back of our mind — like how much can we really do — but in terms of character, in terms of story, it’s really up to you. And we really kind of thrived with that freedom.

Angarano: It wasn’t until pre-production where we had to get together at one point and say, “OK, we actually have to write the draft for what’s going to be the film.” We always wrote with the intention of making it, it was always ours, but we weren’t doing it to make money, which is probably part of why it took so long.

Michael, this question is a bit more directed to you, but you previously directed the film “Avenues” a few years back. What lessons did you take from that experience that helped you when making “Sacramento?”

Angarano: The thing I learned from that film, that was something I knew I was going to need to work on if I ever got another opportunity to make something, was just straight up communication. My communication skills as a human were not on par with what they needed to be.

As an actor, and I’ve been acting since I was 5, you’re really catered to and don’t have to talk to a lot of people and explain things. So for me, communicating with the crew, the actors — that was a real skill I learned.

This has been a film you’ve been working on for 10 years. Obviously, a lot of work has gone into it. How does it feel to be coming to the end stages of it all?

Smith: It’s pretty thrilling. It came out of a friendship, two guys having a good time, and it sort of somehow emerged. Now it’s here, and it’s very surreal but exciting.

Angarano: Totally surreal, and at the same time, I’m proud of us, because it did take that long and it is a lot of time and it is a lot of work and effort and a lot of ups and downs, and there were many moments where I thought this might not ever happen and if it does ever happen it’s gonna be because we stuck it out. So, I’m really glad we did stick it out and I can’t wait to share the movie with people.

This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

This story is part of the Solving Sacramento journalism collaborative. This story was funded by the City of Sacramento’s Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to Solving Sacramento. Following our journalism code of ethics, the city had no editorial influence over this story. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Observer and Univision 19. Sign up for our “Sac Art Pulse” newsletter here.