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"Other People"
U.S. Dramatic Competition
HHH
Writer-director Chris Kelly mines his own life, with sporadically funny and warmly touching results, in the dramedy "Other People." David (Jesse Plemons), is an underemployed comedy writer who has relocated from New York to stay with his parents in Sacramento, mostly tending to his mom, Joanne (Molly Shannon), who is dying of a rare form of cancer. David contends with his career slowdown, his distant relationship to his two younger sisters (Madisen Beady and Maude Apatow), his breakup from his longtime boyfriend Paul (Zack Woods), and the fact that his father Norman (Bradley Whitford) has never accepted that his son is gay. Kelly, a writer for "Saturday Night Live" (a job he also assigns to David), finds rich humor in the absurdities of David's life and his mom's illness — though he does let the humor get off the leash a few times, notably in a scene-stealing turn by J.J. Totah as a confidently flaming 13-year-old. But Plemons (known as a heavy in "The Master" and "Black Mass") is charmingly insecure as David, and Shannon gives a powerful dramatic portrayal of Joanne's gradual wasting away.
— Sean P. Means
"Other People" screens again in the 2016 Sundance Film Festival: Today, 9 a.m., Eccles Theatre, Park City; Tonight, 9:15 p.m., The Grand Theatre, Salt Lake City; Sunday, 3 p.m., Sundance Mountain Resort Screening Room; Wednesday, 5:30 p.m., Prospector Square Theatre, Park City; Friday, Jan. 29, 5:30 p.m. The MARC, Park City; Saturday, Jan. 30, 3:30 p.m., Peery's Egyptian Theatre, Ogden.