Directing music videos Is light. All you have to do is sit there, act safe and never let you have no idea what you do. The client is probably an idiot; Tell that the end result will be “cinematic” and they usually shut up. And if someone really starts pressing, say you “have to check with your producer.” It will buy you some time.
These are the advice that Pasqual (Pasqual Gutierrez) gives to Doppel gangs (Sorta-he is shorter, but whatever) he hires to take his place on the set of a great artist’s “Return to form” in Gutierrez and Ben Mullinkosson’s playful Docu -fiction hybrid ”Serious people. “Doubles, and the idea to be replaced by one, are often things of horror in the films. Here it is a relief, as Pasqual struggles to balance his career as half of a successful direction -duo with the demands for imminent parenting.
A feeling of flashing absurdity permeates “serious people”, who thankfully do not take Pasqual’s world of exciting chasers and self -proclaimed “hypebeasts” very seriously. Pasqual realizes that it is ridiculous to miss your first child’s birth because you movies a scene where a rapper throws fake money on women dancing on strip rods. However, babies are expensive and these jobs pay. Very.
Enough to buy BMW -Cabriolet with Vanity plate that reads “Cliqua”, the name Gutierrez uses for his projects with RJ Sanchez. Sanchez also plays himself in filmAnd in reality, the duo has directed videos for Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, Travis Scott and Rosalia. In “Serious People”, the Dragon is represented here by its manager of Zoom, with a PA that holds a laptop that his on-set surrogate-which makes his lives difficult. Pasqual and RJ’s partnership give “serious people” some real efforts: If Pasqual’s plan goes wrong, as it almost certainly comes, it is not just his career that is at risk. It’s also RJ.
But the most interesting relationship in the film is not between Pasqual and RJ, or even between Pasqual and his wife Christine (Christine Yuan, also as herself), for which he seems to stag this whole Farce. The dynamics between Pasqual and his double Miguel (Miguel Huerta) are fascinating for some reasons: First, Miguel is funny. Many of the film’s many laughing high moments come from Huerta and his performance, whether he uses cheesy pickup lines on one of Christine’s friends or screams about Marvel films and IMAX.
But Miguel – who comes from East La, just like Pasqual – also represents Pasqual’s mixed feelings about doing so out of their old area and to the creative class. He is cruel, more confrontuous, less accustomed to the law and financiers’ way than Pasqual and RJ. And when he has received the benefits of Pasqual’s position, he turns into his furious ID and Evil Twin almost immediately. But Pasqual defends him and says that Miguel reminds him of himself. “It’s like a glorified mentoring,” he explains to an annoyed RJ.
There is an arc layer of racial comments to Pasqual’s plan: The film opens with a scene with Pasqual that holds auditions for the role of himself (again, Shades of a Horror Film, namely Takashi Miikes “audition”). These bikes through a series of Mexican-American “types”, the pure shaved that are accentuated by a stupid pasta-on-suit mustache. And a great inspiration for this nutty idea was the fact that people often confuse RJ and Pasqual. So Pasqual ends cynically, if the people he works with cannot distinguish the difference anyway, then some Mexican guy who looks enough like him. Right?
All this is built to a climax not unlike A section of “Curb your enthusiasm,” A comparison supported by the conditions under which “serious people” was made. Scenes set on Pasqual and Christine’s apartment were shot at their actual home; A baby scene is filled with their actual friends, including co-director Mullinkosson. The introduction of the project was not unlike the start of the Pasqual schedule in the film, and the final credits show Gutierrez and Yuan with their real daughter, who was born shortly after the film.
Yuan is actually pregnant in the film, and a disadvantage of “serious people” with a focus on Pasqual’s internal conflict is that she is too often moved to the annoying wives. She is as fun as men around her – “I wish I was your phone, so you would move me all the time,” she complains – and there is a parallel film that develops from her point of view where her husband is gradually replaced with a cockier fuckboy -rsion of itself. The film saves some time for tender moments, and a scene at an OB-gyn’s office makes a dry mockery against the American healthcare system that feels very anchored in experience. But the balance is a bit of, another meta element in a movie built on them.
Much of “serious people” were improvised, with the leads that played fictional versions of themselves. Fortunately, they are all charismatic people who are used to the presence of cameras, so they feel natural on the screen. More importantly, these dynamic channeling real tension outside the screen in the screen confrontations, which gives an emotional reality to the situation that Pasqual’s life spirals out of control. The movie stumbles a little on several climax, but recovers nicely for a bitter fun stinger.
Even the visual style, which switches between expressive close -up and passive wide images, reflects the mix of artifice and reality. Regardless of “reality”, when you live in the spotted world of celebrity smoke and mirrors, anyway. When facing real challenges, a filmmaker’s first impulse is often to make a movie about it. Washable and self -destructive, “serious people” are the best possible result in that scenario.
Rating: B+
“Serious People” premiered at 2025 Sundance Film festival. It is currently seeking US distribution.
Want to keep you updated on IndieWire’s movie Reviews And critical thoughts? Subscribe here To our recently launched newsletter, in review by David Ehrlich, where our main film critic and Head Review’s editor rounds off the best new reviews and streaming elections along with some exclusive Musings – all only available for subscribers.
