Other People

Director: Chris Kelly
Screenwriters: Chris Kelly

Institute History

Description

David, a struggling comedy writer fresh off from breaking up with his boyfriend, moves from New York City to Sacramento to help his sick mother. Living with his conservative father and much-younger sisters for the first time in ten years, he feels like a stranger in his childhood home. As his mother’s health declines, David frantically tries to extract meaning from this horrible experience and convince everyone (including himself) that he's "doing okay.”

The rare achievement of writer/director Chris Kelly is his ability to honestly capture the full range of emotions that happen within a family on a daily basis. Exquisite details of mundane moments imbue the film with rare insight and humor. Kelly trusts that the everyday problems of ordinary people, if portrayed with enough knowledge and empathy, can make us laugh and cry as much as the bigger ones. Other People features beautifully harmonized performances by the entire cast—with special mentions to Molly Shannon and Jesse Plemons as a mother and son laughing—and crying—in the face of death.

— Trevor Groth

Screening Details

As you use our Online Archives, please understand that the information presented from Festivals, Labs, and other activities is taken directly from official publications from each year. While this information is limited and doesn't necessarily represent the full list of participants (e.g. actors and crew), it is the list given to us by the main film/play/project contact at the time, based on the space restrictions of our publications. Each entry in the Online Archives is meant as a historical record of a particular film, play, or project at the time of its involvement with Sundance Institute. For this reason, we can only amend an entry if a name is misspelled, or if the entry does not correctly reflect the original publication. If you have questions or comments, please email [email protected]