With a firm thumb on the pulse of modern American youth, college filmmaker Jak Kerley brings us a film about the mindset of the 20-something today. With keen understatement Vital Signs strings together glimpses at real life conversations between men and women at the outset of their adulthood, grappling with relationships, money, school, and work. Kerley presents proof positive that the intellectual striving that has sparked previous generations, despite what some may say, is alive and well in America.—Samuel Martin