THOSE PEOPLE drops the viewer into the middle of a melodrama involving several friends trying to find their place in the modern New York landscape. The film follows Charlie (in a revelatory performance by Jonathan Gordon) who has been pining away after his best friend Sebastian (equally good Jason Ralph) for well over a decade. He's in love with Sebastian, yet has never pursued a relationship beyond the superficial.
Enter the pianist Tim (well played by Haaz Sleiman), who shows an interest in Charlie. To anyone who has been emotionally trapped by unrequited love, this scenario will seem familiar. Tim wants a relationship with Charlie, but Sebastian's presence in Charlie's life acts as a perpetual block to maturity. Sebastian is a narcissist, but he is dealing with abandonment issues and relies on Charlie to ground him.
Most of this is played out over three months, a plot device which gives some of the characters' decisions a forced and artificial weight. Had more time been given to flesh out these characters, this might have been a truly great film. These characters are all pretty well-off and seem detached from the struggles of life in a big city. Sebastian's father is dubbed "the most hated man in New York" due to his embezzling money from charities. Sebastian himself bears the brunt of the public's scorn, unable to show his face in public without being hounded by the press.
What separates THOSE PEOPLE from some of the more pedantic queer cinema of late is how these characters interact. They all care for each other, and the not-terribly-innovative admission of this story is we often stay in damaging relationships out of fear. Gordon's performance beautifully captures this hesitancy to mature and move on, even when he knows better. I've never seen Gordon before, but he gives an eye-opening performance here.
Ralph and Sleiman are also quite good. Ralph has the unenviable task of making Sebastian into someone the viewer believes Charlie would stay with. The chemistry between Ralph and Gordon is palpable, and it's a large reason the film works as well as it does. Sleiman, always a sight for sore eyes, gives Tim a maturity with a hint of past trauma that makes him quick to react.
While it isn't a great film, it is a very good one, with surehanded directing from first timer Joey Kuhn (he's a better director than writer, judging from this movie alone). The cinematography is lush and warm, drawing viewers into this inviting story with ease. Nothing here is particularly surprising, and the writing suffers from its predictable story arc, but minor complaints of an otherwise lovely little film.
