This year, Defa returned to Sundance to have his second directorial feature film, the simple yet simmering ensemble comedy – also titled “Person to Person” – once again embraced by audiences for its sophisticated story of smart hearts and wits between an eclectic bunch of New York City-dwellers.
When Salt Lake City native Dustin Guy Defa brought his short film “Person to Person” to the Sundance Film Festival back in 2014, it was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize in its category. This year, Defa returned to Sundance to have his second directorial feature film, the simple yet simmering ensemble comedy – also titled “Person to Person” – once again embraced by audiences for its sophisticated story of smart hearts and wits between an eclectic bunch of New York City-dwellers. Playing in the Next category of the festival, “Person to Person” (the feature) is series of inter-cut stories involving a mostly pair of persons in which subtly eccentric characters deliver hilariously dry deadpan-on-arrival humor about any of the mundane things that occur in daily life, revealing an insightful take on modern day human connections.
Standing apart from its more dynamic and showy festival-playing peers, this observational comedy is a gentle slice of life flick which follows various characters. And though its storylines do not intersect or have any connection to each other, together they amplify the normally mundane lives lived by today’s young adults. Over the period of 24 hours, we are introduced to a collection of odd ducks, including Bene (Bene Coopersmith), a vinyl collector seeking revenge on the dumb deadbeat who sold him a fake record; Ray (George Sample III), who is facing the repercussions of posting nude pictures of his ex-girlfriend on the internet; angsty feminist teen Wendy (Tavi Gevinson), who suffers through the politics of high school, dating, and life itself; and Phil (Michael Cera), a reporter at a daily newspaper who takes it upon himself to train the company’s new hire Claire (Abbi Jacobson) in investigating a hot lead and her first story – the (alleged) murder of a wife’s (Michaela Watkins) husband.
Standing apart from its more dynamic and showy festival-playing peers, this observational comedy is a gentle slice of life flick which follows various characters.
This mashup-movie of comedic forces delivers not only a wholly funny and complete film but in the characters’ wistful performances, also oozes an overall nostalgia itself. Shot on 16mm film, the old-school look is a warm and self-deprecating nod to the simpler days of yester-year’s troubles, like the love child of Woody Allen and Charlie Brown. Defa constructs these surface-complicated personal relationships with a sense of uplift that conveys the struggle for connection as the thematic thread that ties the film’s characters together.
Music also plays a large role as the thematic guideline to the characters feelings. Offbeat jazz tempos accompany a frantic Bene, who is as impulsively scattered as the music itself. Heavy metal – particularly of the headache-inducing variety – becomes another quirk of Cera’s Phil (a crucial dimension to his character as he addresses the music at face value when he finally gets Claire to join him in a head-banging session). This scene is perhaps the funniest in the film, largely due to Jacobson’s ability to humor Cera, all the while remaining skeptical of his shenanigans.
“Person to Person” is a wonderfully compartmentalized comedy, whose story about the minutiae of everyday life will take a restrained yet worth it view to appreciate. Those looking for the immediate laughs that might more easily jump off the screen may grow tired of the film’s tonal pacing and cadence, but its lovely brand of intelligentsia comedy will certainly find devoted audiences past its festival circuit.
