OTHER PEOPLE
US, 2016, 97 minutes, Colour.
Jesse Plemons, Molly Shannon, Bradley Whitford, Maude Apatow, Madisen Beaty, June Squibb, Paul Dooley, Matt Walsh.
Directed by Chris Kelly.
When we talk about other people, they are generally undergoing different experiences, experiences that we don’t have. In this film, it is pointed out that the central characters are the “other people�.
The film was written and directed by Chris Kelly, who wrote for Saturday Night Live and incorporates this background into his screenplay. He also uses the actual name of his mother, Joanne, for the mother who has terminal cancer. His alter ego in this film, David, has come out earlier, accepted by his mother, not by his father.
The narrative takes place over one year, signalled by the months. David has come to his home town of Sacramento to be with his mother in her final year, finding it lonely, with no one to confide in. He has broken with his partner. He is played by Jesse Plemons in a different kind of performance, bringing his character to credible life.
However, Molly Shannon’s performance as Joanne is well worth seeing, more subtle than many of Molly Shannon’s comic performances. She combines a sense of humour, seen as an improv concert, with the physical pain of her condition, the psychological repercussions, her relationships with her family, and with her husband, Norman, Bradley Whitford.
The film successfully combines its two themes, repercussions of sexual orientation, the reality of terminal illness and death.
1. The title? Not us…, But others? The central characters becoming ‘other people’?
2. Americans, the cross-section of American characters, white Americans?
3. The Sacramento setting, the city and the views, homes, streets, clubs? The visit to New York? The musical score?
4. The director, his experience in Saturday Night Live, comic writing? The personal story? His own mother and her name Joanne?
5. The opening, the whole family on the bed, Joanne’s death, the phone call, intrusive, the message about Joanne’s health? The story in flashbacks?
6. The period of the year, the designation of the months, time passing?
7. Joanne’s story, her background, her age, illness, a family with her, the severe cancer, the range of treatments, success and failure? The different effects on her? The visualising of her illness? Vomiting, weakness, hair and wigs, decisions about the treatment? Her love for Norman? Her love for David, for the two daughters? Their being together? Spending the year of illness with her? The development and collapse over the year, the pain, enjoying the improv concert, the visit to Paul in New York City, Skyping about the daughter’s wedding? Her will to live? The discussions about burial and cremation? Molly Shannon’s portrait of a woman dying of cancer, the subtlety of the performance?
8. David, Jesse Plemons, one year with his mother, his place in the family, writing for Saturday Night Live, success, writing the pilot, its not being accepted? Returning home to Sacramento, finding it confining? No one to confide in? The background of his coming out earlier, his mother making an apology for not supporting him sooner, the reaction of his father, not accepting his orientation, New York and going, but not entering the apartment with Paul? David and his attitude towards his father, the final change, the invitation to Paul, writing the check? David and the relationship with Paul, visiting Gabriel, Justin and his gay performance? The sexual encounter with Paul, the break? The website, the gay date? In the store, his breakdown in looking for the medication? Having to cope? The confrontation,the family on the bed? His future?
9. The portrait of the sisters, sympathetic, the place in the family, caring for their mother, their father? The wedding?
10. The world of the media, David and his friends, the friend with the Dracula teeth, their Skyyping at the time of the wedding, failing with the pilot, the success of the improv?
11. Audience response to a portrait of cancer, illness and dying? Audience response to the gay themes – the explicit themes and language? Combining them in the one film?
