Other People (2016)

Jack and I agree that this is very good--the story of a gay comedy writer who has returned home to help care for his dying mother. It sounds maudlin but has quite a few laughs among the sadness. We chose it because of its five Independent Spirit nominations.

Jesse Plemons, nominated for Best Male Lead, was in, among others, 65 episodes of Friday Night Lights as Landry, 13 of Breaking Bad as Todd, two of Olive Kittredge as Jerry McCarthy, ten of Fargo as Ed Blumquist, two of Drunk History (one of Jack's faves) as Charles Ponzi and Edgar Allen Poe, and the movies The Master, The Homesman, and Bridge of Spies. Molly Shannon (last blogged for Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) is nominated for Best Supporting Female. They are both completely deserving. There are also pivotal scenes with Bradley Whitford (after writing about him in I Saw the Light I thought he was terrific in ten episodes of Happyish and seven of Transparent). Further support is ably provided by June Squibb (most recently in I'll See You in My Dreams) and Paul Dooley (of his 194 credits I choose to mention A Wedding (1978), Breaking Away (1979), Popeye (1980), Sixteen Candles (1984), six episodes of Dream On (1992-94), Runaway Bride (1999), six episodes of Once and Again (2001-02), seven of Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-05), and Sunshine Cleaning) as the grandparents. The sisters don't have a lot to do but the younger brunette one, Alex, is played by Maude Apatow (last blogged for This Is 40).

Director Chris Kelly, nominated for both Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay has a great writing resumé, including staff writer for Saturday Night Live, The Onion News Network, UCB Comedy Originals, and Broad City (also producer). The movie was also nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize earlier this year. Actor Adam Scott and his wife Naomi are among the producers.

Cinematography nominee Brian Burgoyne also shot Hello, My Name Is Doris, though I failed to mention him.

Composer Julian Wass (last scored The Overnight, which starred Adam Scott) provides the music. I can't find this score online, but his website has plenty of tunes to stream.

We streamed this on Amazon yesterday ($4.99 for a one-week rental) and are glad we did. Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average is 87% and its audiences' is 81.