Wanna see a fun movie about a mom dying of cancer? Does anyone want to see another cancer movie? Well, if it’s the 2016 film, Other People, written and directed by SNL staff writer, Chris Kelly, then you probably do. Kelly’s semi-autobiographical directorial debut is based on his own experiences watching his mother be taken by the disease a few years earlier. What he manages to do with this picture, however, is to stretch the dynamics between tragedy and comedy in a way that avoids obvious tropes and steers clear of easy, maudlin melodrama. The end result is that he pulls the tension of this thread to such a taut perfection, these slices of life twang with true authenticity and pathos throughout.
The story takes place over the course of a single year and it is no spoiler to say that it starts with the death of the matriarch of this family and then jumps back a year to show the road to get there. We open on the whole family in bed with the just deceased mother, fresh in their immediate grief, when the phone rings and is picked up by the answering machine. We hear the voice of a family well-wisher, not knowing she’s just passed, trying to offer support, but getting caught up in a botched drive-thru order while the grieving family silently listens. This perfectly sets up the dualism of the proceedings and, within that framework, it’s a series of moments held together by the inevitability of the fate which we know is on the horizon. This isn’t a story about whether or not mom’s gonna die. It’s about how everyone deals with this along the way and it’s not neat & tidy or designed to give you easy footholds to grip onto as some kind of “we’ll get through this” pat on the back reassurance. It’s simply the raw experiences and responses to them which makes this a rich palette of human emotions in all their variety. Sometimes it’s laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes the brutality of the pain just leaves you numb.
The film stars Jesse Plemons, who is one of the most interesting young actors in mainstream cinema these days. In this role, it dawned on me how much he reminds me of a young Philip Seymour Hoffman around the time of Boogie Nights. Beyond the obvious physical resemblance, which made them an ideal familial pairing in The Master, it’s Plemons’ skill in bringing characters to life through the use of deftly crafted subtleties that echoes Hoffman’s ability to do the same. Small ticks & nuances, like his neurotic nail biting in this role, help to reinforce his character in ways that seep into our perception, rather than beat you over the head with overacting dramatics. I know Plemons primarily from Breaking Bad and Black Mirror - USS Callister. In Breaking Bad, especially the El Camino movie, he carefully combines his boyish sense of innocence with the dead-eyed malevolence of a stalking shark, while his Black Mirror character balances a weak, bullied real-world nerd with a sadistic monster in his fantasy virtual reality. Here, he’s an altogether more sympathetic character, filling in as the writer/director’s avatar where his character is also an SNL writer struggling to raise his profile in the industry and also not quite comfortable with his sexual identity, something which is reinforced by his father’s impenetrable denial. Plemons works all of the angles to capture his character’s frustration and loneliness, even as he’s surrounded by family.
The other key figure in the film is Molly Shannon as the mother. Shannon is an actual SNL alumnus and, personally, back in the day, I wasn’t always big on her work, especially the Marry Katherine Gallagher recurring character, but her recent film work has shown her to be altogether nailing it on all fronts. Here, she’s shown in a sequence of “drop in” moments throughout the film, so her presence on screen is never too lingering, but each glimpse is powerful and Shannon imbues them all with a distinctive emotional resonance. Whether she’s cheery or sad or desperate or stoned or exhausted or whatever the mood of the moment, she captures it in a multifaceted, dazzling clarity that communicates so much within the small windows where we see her.
The supporting cast is also riddled with precise little performances from several notables. June Squibb is as captivating as she always is as the grandmother. Matt Walsh (VEEP) works his joke store fake hillbilly teeth perfectly as the obnoxious uncle. Kerri Kenney (Reno 911) is the perfect goofy aunt. Zach Woods (VEEP, Silicon Valley), is the ideal foil for Plemons as the estranged boyfriend who still manages to make dad uncomfortable. Paula Pell, another SNL alumnus, pops in to offer some bad medical advise and a charlatan religious healing device. These and many other carefully crafted guest spots are sprinkled throughout the glimpses of this family’s struggle with fatality.
Yes, it’s another terminal cancer story, but I was very surprised by how atypically it was handled and how skillfully the emotional switches were flipped without it seeming contrived or manipulative. It just felt REAL and natural and true to life. Having watched close friends go through this, it all felt right and reflective of the actual messy struggle, complete with all the loose ends that a prematurely terminated life has to offer.
The story takes place over the course of a single year and it is no spoiler to say that it starts with the death of the matriarch of this family and then jumps back a year to show the road to get there. We open on the whole family in bed with the just deceased mother, fresh in their immediate grief, when the phone rings and is picked up by the answering machine. We hear the voice of a family well-wisher, not knowing she’s just passed, trying to offer support, but getting caught up in a botched drive-thru order while the grieving family silently listens. This perfectly sets up the dualism of the proceedings and, within that framework, it’s a series of moments held together by the inevitability of the fate which we know is on the horizon. This isn’t a story about whether or not mom’s gonna die. It’s about how everyone deals with this along the way and it’s not neat & tidy or designed to give you easy footholds to grip onto as some kind of “we’ll get through this” pat on the back reassurance. It’s simply the raw experiences and responses to them which makes this a rich palette of human emotions in all their variety. Sometimes it’s laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes the brutality of the pain just leaves you numb.
The film stars Jesse Plemons, who is one of the most interesting young actors in mainstream cinema these days. In this role, it dawned on me how much he reminds me of a young Philip Seymour Hoffman around the time of Boogie Nights. Beyond the obvious physical resemblance, which made them an ideal familial pairing in The Master, it’s Plemons’ skill in bringing characters to life through the use of deftly crafted subtleties that echoes Hoffman’s ability to do the same. Small ticks & nuances, like his neurotic nail biting in this role, help to reinforce his character in ways that seep into our perception, rather than beat you over the head with overacting dramatics. I know Plemons primarily from Breaking Bad and Black Mirror - USS Callister. In Breaking Bad, especially the El Camino movie, he carefully combines his boyish sense of innocence with the dead-eyed malevolence of a stalking shark, while his Black Mirror character balances a weak, bullied real-world nerd with a sadistic monster in his fantasy virtual reality. Here, he’s an altogether more sympathetic character, filling in as the writer/director’s avatar where his character is also an SNL writer struggling to raise his profile in the industry and also not quite comfortable with his sexual identity, something which is reinforced by his father’s impenetrable denial. Plemons works all of the angles to capture his character’s frustration and loneliness, even as he’s surrounded by family.
The other key figure in the film is Molly Shannon as the mother. Shannon is an actual SNL alumnus and, personally, back in the day, I wasn’t always big on her work, especially the Marry Katherine Gallagher recurring character, but her recent film work has shown her to be altogether nailing it on all fronts. Here, she’s shown in a sequence of “drop in” moments throughout the film, so her presence on screen is never too lingering, but each glimpse is powerful and Shannon imbues them all with a distinctive emotional resonance. Whether she’s cheery or sad or desperate or stoned or exhausted or whatever the mood of the moment, she captures it in a multifaceted, dazzling clarity that communicates so much within the small windows where we see her.
The supporting cast is also riddled with precise little performances from several notables. June Squibb is as captivating as she always is as the grandmother. Matt Walsh (VEEP) works his joke store fake hillbilly teeth perfectly as the obnoxious uncle. Kerri Kenney (Reno 911) is the perfect goofy aunt. Zach Woods (VEEP, Silicon Valley), is the ideal foil for Plemons as the estranged boyfriend who still manages to make dad uncomfortable. Paula Pell, another SNL alumnus, pops in to offer some bad medical advise and a charlatan religious healing device. These and many other carefully crafted guest spots are sprinkled throughout the glimpses of this family’s struggle with fatality.
Yes, it’s another terminal cancer story, but I was very surprised by how atypically it was handled and how skillfully the emotional switches were flipped without it seeming contrived or manipulative. It just felt REAL and natural and true to life. Having watched close friends go through this, it all felt right and reflective of the actual messy struggle, complete with all the loose ends that a prematurely terminated life has to offer.
