Despite the ultra-modern trappings of “Serious People” in a gentrified corner of Los Angeles, it’s an age-old problem faced by its lead Pasqual (Pasqual Gutierrez), who needs to be in two places at once. An in-demand director of music videos, he needs to carve out some time in his busy schedule to be around for the birth of his first child, yet he is offered an opportunity he can’t easily turn down if he’d like to maintain his career momentum right when his wife Christine (Christine Yuan) is expected to deliver, having to choose between letting her down or Drake, who’s got a new album coming out and needs a helmer for an R & B throwback track called “Head Over Heels.”
There is really only a single running gag in “Serious People,” but it’s a good one when it touches on the possibility that Pasqual’s poor choices could lead to more damage to Aubrey Graham than Kendrick Lamar ever could, not to mention to himself as he comes to the equally inspired and moronic notion that he should hire an actor as his double so he could take the Drake gig and be present for the birth. (For her part, Christine doesn’t think twice about turning down a $250k Super Bowl gig in setting a date for her C-section.) The idea is sound on paper when Pasqual has access to all the production apparatus he’d regularly use as a director, only looking to cast someone who’d resemble himself instead and as he says to Miguel (Miguel Huerta), the eventual doppelgänger he finds via a Craigslist ad, “This music video shit people do with their eyes closed.” However, in practice, it naturally doesn’t go as planned.
“Serious People” runs the risk as being a bit too insular if seen strictly as a sendup of the entertainment industry and its setting of Los Angeles, but Gutierrez, who co-directs the film with Ben Mullinkosson, has been quite open about basing parts of “Serious People” on his own experience and besides recognizing the absurdity of the situation that Pasqual finds himself in attempting to balance his personal and professional lives, there does seem to be something lurking underneath the surface that he could tap into. Pasqual and Christine look every bit the cliched couple from Silver Lake as they sit for professional pictures in ridiculous outfits that they’ll probably be embarrassed by later as they look back on this important period in their lives, but the pressure of keeping up appearances is a palpable source of stress for the pair, and it speaks volumes that Pasqual would rather subject himself to far more work to properly execute his scheme than to simply say no to the Drake video.
All you need to know about how Gutierrez and Mullinkosson feel about this misplaced effort on the part of Pasqual is in their own formal efficiency, with the film unfolding in perfectly composed static frames that were surely fussed over by a colorist to give them that look of reality with a little more depth to them where it instantly seems as if Pasqual himself is trapped inside the work he regularly hired to do, living a heavily lacquered lifestyle that hides the chaos underneath. The film’s strong visual style also makes Miguel more of a wrecking ball as he charges onto the scene, taking Pasqual’s ill-considered suggestion that all you need is confidence to be a director to become a monster on set, alienating most of Pasqual’s regular collaborators as he insists on specially made lattes and begins dictating his own creative thoughts that are impractical to execute. By keeping their own focus tight and manageable, Gutierrez and Mullinkosson show there are benefits of not trying to do it all on their incisive feature debut.
“Serious People” does not yet have U.S. distribution.