In the L.A. comedy-drama “Serious People,” remarkable naturalism and immense absurdity sit shoulder-to-shoulder. However, as notable as this tension may be, the novelty of the movie’s tonal dissonance eventually wears out, thanks to a story of swapped identities with no real end goal in mind.
The film, from directors Pasqual Gutierrez and Ben Mullinkosson, begins exciting and mysteriously, with a number of unknown Latino actors auditioning for a highly unconventional role: that of the director casting them, Pasqual (played by the movie’s own co-director, Gutierrez). There are glimpses of prospective hires, who come in different shapes and sizes and with wildly different levels of skill; one of them, bodybuilder and wannabe social media celebrity Miguel (Miguel Huerta), shows up with the right amount of swagger, the perfect forced bravado and a physical resemblance to Pasqual (enhanced by the gleaming shades both mean wear). When asked his philosophy on directing, Miguel brushes off the question, responding jovially with “I just gotta be you.” It elicits a smile from Pasqual, though you’d be forgiven for mishearing his retort as “I just gotta beat you” — an omen of things to come.
The reasons for this strange job interview are revealed in flashback, as Pasqual and his directing partner Raul (Raul Sanchez) are called upon to spearhead the next music video for rap superstar Drake, framed as an enormous step up for the duo. The film was notably shot months before Drake’s high profile (and distinctly mismatched) feud with Kendrick Lamar, but the rapper having become a public punchline since makes the premise all the funnier. However, there’s a wrinkle to Pasqual’s career plan. His pregnant wife Christine (played by Gutierrez ‘s real wife, Christine Yuan, who was expecting at the time of production) is set to give birth the day of the shoot, preventing him from being on set. In order to have his cake and eat it too, Pasqual concocts an ill-advised, galaxy-brained ploy: hiring the over-eager Miguel to stand-in for him during the shoot, despite Raul’s reluctance.
Gutierrez and Mullinkosson display formal control during these meta-textual gags — a Herculean feat, given how improvisational the whole thing feels (for better or worse). Between their lengthy, keenly-observed takes, and their off-kilter close ups that draw the eye in surprising ways, “Serious People” proves delightful even before Miguel enters the fray. When he does — practically becoming Pasqual’s shadow during meetings and location scouts — the faux director-in-training brings boisterous (and often flirtatious) antics that portend just how poorly this plan will go.
Along the way, Pasqual expresses anxieties about his impending fatherhood, including his fears of a split consciousness before and after his child’s birth: an inability to remember who he was before having a child. Miguel’s presence externalizes these uncertainties, but this is not to say that “Serious People” is brazenly metaphorical (despite suggestions akin to Denis Villeneuve’s doppelgänger thriller “Enemy”). However, by gesturing towards this theme of duality, the movie establishes expectations of what Miguel might come to represent for Pasqual in the long run. As Miguel veers slowly off the rails during his own directorial power trip — getting on Raul’s nerves in the process — he taps into the idea of a lingering, pompous creative ego in the broad strokes. This leads to a number of funny, foul-mouthed exchanges with people who have the ability to make or break Pasqual’s career. Bit by bit, these complications escalate, until… well, until nothing in particular.
There’s a shocking abruptness (and emptiness) with which “Serious People” wraps up its central plot. It’s a movie with sparks of interesting ideas, but it fails to fully set them alight, expressing, through its comedy, only the most rudimentary forms of paternal and creative anxieties before calling it a day. For a film so clearly personal — one that filters the true-to-life through the stranger-than-fiction, and one born of free-flowing conversations between real-life friends — it ends up without a satisfying or personal objective, despite its many amusing setups. Ironically, its only real payoff is its surreal magnitude of Drake-centricity (down to casting a look-alike), which largely ends up being absurd and hilarious thanks to events entirely outside of the film’s purview.
