2015 is one of those years where the term Sundance Film really earns its pejorative definition. It’s a stylistic formula that needs to have the content to back it up. Unfortunately for People Places Things, it embodies the twee semi-ironic non-ironic sensibilities of Sundance, intending to create a realistic romantic comedy for young and hip urbanites, but still managing to make a movie that feels forced and formulaic.
Writer-director James C. Strouse doesn’t exactly have a pedigree. His previous two films, Grace is Gone and The Winning Season, premiered at Sundance before getting a lackluster release and then delegated to the Sundance dustbins of history. That’s not exactly true; Grace is Gone was nominated for 2 Golden Globes for Best Score and Best Song, both written by Clint Eastwood. Then, it disappeared. What the two films have in common is that weird Sundancean ability to be simultaneously predictable and unrealistic.
People Places Things follows in these grand footsteps by being a romantic comedy for men on the rebound after a catastrophic relationship. The man on the rebound is Will Henry (Jemaine Clement), a sad sack (underdog!) cartoonist (twee!) who has been dumped by his rich wife, Charlie (Stephanie Alynne), after he caught her having sex with his best friend, Gary (Michael Chamus), at their daughter’s fifth birthday party (awkward!). This opening segment is played for keeps as a solid bit of humiliation comedy that, despite efforts to keep things off kilter, Strouse never fully revives.
A year later, and Will is still floundering from the separation/divorce. Teaching animation at some low-rent college, Will has to commute daily from Astoria (So Far Away!), deal with his Sundance Requisite Bitch-of-an-Ex-Wife, and try to figure out his emotions as an introverted creative soul who is now single and has no outlet for human experience. In walks his 19-year-old student Kat (played by the way-too-old-and-mature-for-the-part Jessica Williams) who tries to hook him up with her mother, Diane (Regina Hall), in the hopes that Diane gets a happy solid relationship with a good man for once. But, Will has to get over his own hang-ups about Charlie before he can start dating her. For added conflict, at a last-minute, Charlie’s something or other for the kids falls through and Will has to now figure out how to juggle his commute, his new relationship, his old relationship, his job, and his kids. Much like Sundance, this is all supposed to be slice of life with twee hangups.
To his credit, Strouse’s characters feel realistic and lived in. Clement has an ability to make all of his characters feel like they’ve been lived in and are actually dealing with the comedy and/or emotions they have to face. But, the real star of the movie is Regina Hall as a woman who simultaneously accepts her mistakes and regrets some of her choices. She plays the conflict as a determined strong woman who manages to steals every single scene she’s in. If it weren’t for Hall’s acting and character, People Places Things would be an egomaniacal mess of self-loathing.
Unfortunately, we’re stuck with a film centered on Will, who is kind of a nothing of a character. Much like Me in Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl, Will is far too focused on himself to figure out anybody else’s life. Strouse is a smarter man, and actually allows Charlie, Diane, and Kat to interject their stories into Will’s movie, even if they have to do it by force. Sure, he fills up the movie with twee animations and cleverer-than-thou post-ironic witticisms that are the mark of all Sundance losers, but we actually get to know Diane as a woman. Even as we get to know these men and women, it frequently seems like they’re being forced by Strouse’s hand to act in certain ways, creating an awkward tension of formulaic demands vs naturalistic dramedy that never fulls resolves itself.
People Places Things is simultaneously smarter than your usual romantic comedy and not as clever as it thinks it is. It’s nice having people of color on screen acting in ways that don’t restrict them to cliches, but they still feel like their actions are being force by the writer. The post-ironic comedy is periodically chuckle-worthy yet never fully realized to its full potential. Hindered by its budget with a refreshing lack of visual style, People Places Things is the perfect movie for when you’re in that lazy melancholic low after a big breakup. It’s not exactly reaching for the stars, but its not terrible at what it does.