Soundtracking: Other People

by Chris Feil

Writer/director Chris Kelly has quietly become one of our sharpest surveyors of gay life in a very straight world. His is a gay perspective adept at illuminating the very specific mileage between not only queer folk and the straight people who think they understand them, but also between gay generations often lumped into one.

We saw this at play this year in the new beloved series he co-created, The Other Two, but we first got that insight in his underrated debut feature Other People. This semi-autobiographical dramatic comedy saw a thirty-year-old gay writer David (played beautifully by Jesse Plemons) returning to his suburban home to care for his mother Joanne (the immaculate Molly Shannon), recently diagnosed with cancer. All of that human drama, including its gay textures, get embodied in one perfect song choice that Kelly uses throughout...

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Tweetweek: "We Fought a Zoo" and #Filmstruck4

Tweets of the week, curated for you in case you don't want to wade endlessly through twitter feeds each day.

I hate that this will end up being in no way representative of the content of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom pic.twitter.com/rUSj35Ec9K

— Clarisse Loughrey (@clarisselou) April 18, 2018

More after the jump including Rampage, Amadeus, and Love Simon jokes and other little morsels about new and classic films including the popular FilmStruck4 challenge of picking four films that define you...

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Co-Star Chemistry, The "Make or Break" Secret Ingredient

Year in Review. Each day another different angled wrap-up.

Last year during our year in review roundup we did our first list of "best co-star chemistry" and it was such a fun way to pinpoint the intangible and often uncategorizable spark that ignites greatness in movies that we're doing it again. Want to capture lightning in a bottle in your movie? Hire the right casting director who will pair the right actors together. No special effect, setpiece, or plot twist can or will ever rival the amount of movie-long electricity that can be generated when actors are really sparking off each other and nailing whatever the roles their characters play in each other's lives simultaneously.

The list is presented without much commentary... unless we couldn't escape it. Chime in in the comments, won't you?

16 Chris Pine & Ben Foster, Hell or High Water (Brothers)

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"American Honey" & "Moonlight" lead the Spirit Award Nominations

Nominations have been announced for the 20th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards, which we generally abbreviate as "Indie Spirits" or "Spirits". American Honey and Moonlight, two idiosyncratic visions, lead with six nominations each. Moonlight, which takes the ensemble prize (but wasn't nominated for individual performances) will also presumably be hot with Oscars. The two other Oscar Best Picture contenders that did very well at the Spirits today were Jackie and Manchester by the Sea. Other People, the cancer dramedy loosely based on the directors own life, can also be very happy about its nomination showing. Other buzzy titles like Hell or High Water, 20th Century Women, and Loving had mixed success, picking up some key nods but not others despite their high profiles.

Moonlight receives six Spirit nominations... and seems likely to win a few of them.

 And here are two big reasons to celebrate -- Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic) and Isabelle Huppert (Elle) were both nominated. Oscar nominations are hardly done deals for either of those exquisite performances so any attention that can be drawn is worth celebrating. The full list with commentary after the jump (titles links go to our reviews)...

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Interview: Chris Kelly on "Other People", favorite actresses, and the best NYC party he’s ever been to

by Murtada

You may be familiar with Chris Kelly from his work as a writer on Broad City and Saturday Night Live. Other People marks his feature debut as a writer and director, it premiered earlier this year at Sundance, creating awards buzz for Molly Shannon's supporting performance. A semi autobiographical story, the film is about a struggling comedy writer (Jesse Plemons),who moves back home to help his sick mother (Shannon) who’s in the final stages of cancer. Living with his conservative father (Bradley Whitford) and younger sisters (Maude Apatow and Madisen Beaty), David feels like a stranger in his childhood home. He is supported by his ex (Zach Woods) and best friend (John Early) as his mother worsens, all the while trying to convince everyone, including himself, that he’s “doing okay". Other People is a an assured and funny debut that goes deep into familial relationships and comes up potent in its depiction of grief, gay friendships and what it means to be a good son and brother.

Our conversation with Kelly is after the jump:

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