Those People

Charlie is a young painter in wealthy Manhattan who is in love with Sebastian, his oldest friend. Sebastian knows this and uses it. At the same time Sebastian's father goes to prison over an enormous fraud and the son becomes the name everyone is discussing. Charlie, meanwhile, meets an older Lebanese concert pianist. The question the film asks is whether loving somebody for years obliges you to keep doing it. Charlie's choice is not between friendship and a new life but between habit and a life of his own. It is Joey Kuhn's first feature, with Jonathan Gordon, Jason Ralph and Haaz Sleiman. Its flaw is that everyone here is very rich and the film keeps no distance from that privilege, so the problems of people with no money worries sometimes float. Sebastian's behaviour also repeats itself through the second half. Who it is for: viewers who like New York relationship drama. Who it is not for: anyone looking for class realism.