Will Henry (Jemaine Clement) is a graphic novelist who separates with his girlfriend, whom he has two children with, after finding her cheating on him with a monologist. A year later, while still recovering from the breakup, Will is a single father and professor trying to spend more time with his kids. One of Will’s students attempts to set him up with her mother Diane (Regina Hall). At first she’s as uncomfortable with the idea of the blind date as Will is, but after a shaky first dinner they both see an undeniable connection.
Flight of the Concords Jemaine Clement does an amazing lead turn as Will, bringing to life a character that is at times both laugh out loud funny and deeply sympathetic. Writer/Director James Strouse crafts an amazingly deep character who protects himself with a dry humor that will elicit chuckles at the perfect but inappropriate moments. Offsetting the fun and interest of Will’s story is many other elements of the film such as music and setting which have been quite frankly done many, many times before and feel a bit generic. People Places Things works best when Clement is front and center and playing off his fellow actors; that is worth the price of admission alone.
People Places Things opens in limited release August 21st.
Adam Ruhl is a writer and life long Cinephile. He is the Executive
Cinema Editor of Pop Culture Beast’s Austin branch; covering festivals,
conventions, and new releases. When not filing reports, Adam can be
found stalking Alamo Drafthouse Programmers for leads on upcoming
DrafthouseFilms titles. Adam once blocked Harry Knowles entrance to a
theater until he was given extra tickets to a Roman Polanski movie.