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.