Actual People

Boring and boring, not everyone can be Phoebe Waller bridge.

Slamdance Film Festival 2022 Greetings again from the darkness. Spicoli (Sean Penn in FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH) was the poster child for stoners in the 80's. Julie (Deborah Foreman in VALLEY GIRL) taught us the annoying Valley Girl speech patterns, some of which have 'like' stuck around. The Dude (Jeff Bridges in THE BIG LEBOWSKI) epitomized slackers, and Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman in THE GRADUATE) showed the messiness of post-graduation aimlessness. We can only hope that following in these era-defining cinematic footsteps was what writer-director-producer-star Kit Zauhar had in mind with her character of Riley - the prototype of a stereotypical whiny Millennial.

Riley is an Asian-American Philosophy major with only a couple of weeks left until graduation. She's also rudderless, frightened by the demands of independence, and unaccepting of society's structure and demands for adults. She was recently dumped by her boyfriend of three years, and is now aimless and unable to function and effectively finish the miniscule amount of schoolwork remaining in order to graduate. Riley seems only capable of whining, while she turns her attention (such that it is) to finding a new soul mate. Somehow this supersedes her need to complete college and move on with life.

The approach she takes is all about partying. Drugs, alcohol, sex, and cigarettes become part of her daily life. Friends come and go, and cringe-inducing conversations revolve around things like Boba tea, race relations, and vagina yogurt. Riley becomes obsessed, or at least misdirected, with emotions for one particular young man. She believes that their one-night stand combined with their sharing bi-racial backgrounds and a hometown of Philly equate to their destiny of togetherness. She's blind to the obvious disconnect with his feelings.

What we have is Riley, an aimless protagonist who seeks answers, while paying no attention to the life lessons she's receiving. Supporting work is provided by Scott Albrecht, Randall Palmer, Isabelle Barbier, and Tanya Morgan. The latter has one of the film's best scenes as a therapist/counselor for Riley. The stress of senior year and the adulthood that immediately follows graduation is certainly a hefty burden and one that weighs on many students. Unfortunately, Riley offers us little to care about as viewers. By this stage in life, being without a partner should not be debilitating. She's had four years to focus on what comes next, rather than who. We see Riley reading a Miranda July book, and it would be understandable if filmmaker Zauhar models her approach after the talented Ms. July, but the incessant whining and lack of backbone would probably not be found in a July project. Riley is tough to watch, especially when her crush describes their time together (in the film's best line) as "special in the moment, not significant." We hold high expectations for Ms. Zauhar's future as an actor and filmmaker, and let's hope she's learned her lessons better than Riley.

Really enjoyed this film via Slamdance 2022.

I could really empathize with the main character and also was impressed that she wrote and directed the film.

Great work!

Debut feature of writer-director-star Kit Zauhar that follows young Riley, a philosophy student, surfing the challenges of becoming an adult while she is in her last year at the university.

The cinematography of the movie is very naturalistic with a handheld camera. Owing to its aimless quality, it feels more like a diary experimentation than a cohesive idea taking shape. According to Kit Zauhar, "the structure of the narrative is autobiographical, but the actual like events that feel in the timeline are for the most part not." In a Q&A, she explained she had a crazy last week at college that culminated in her going back to Philadelphia to pursue a man who was not interested in her.

In the movie Riley is often partying here and there with friends, in the apartment she shares with a man she spent one night with, talking to her therapist, or visiting her family. Zauhar uses TikTok-style fragments of videos intersected throughout the movie as a way to convey her generation or the experimental, independent spirit of the movie, although the result might be peculiar. Actual People is a movie that covers themes of an uncertain future, parental pressure, modern mores, and everything relating to young people of this generation. It tries to be humorous, but most of the time the humor feels forced and it isn't funny. The problem is that, although it takes form as it progresses, it still feels like watching pieces of videos disjointed. It has good moments here and there, especially the pants episode and the therapist session, but they never add up to a complete film.

I'm not the best at writing reviews... where to start? The film throws the viewer an extremely uncomfortable feeling for the first half, but compelling. Luckily it backs off from the young adult awkwardness in the second half, and ends on an uplifting note. I liked this balance.

The film definitely has a mumblecore feel to it, though it's obviously not mumblecore as it was well-scripted. Nevertheless, it's always refreshing to see these ultra realistic depictions of contemporary young adult angst. Also refreshing not to have white lead. The film feels a bit early 2010s, maybe because there's a notable absence of smartphones and feels pre-pandemic. Still, a lot of these experiences are timeless.

I personally hope she continues making more films like these.