In Dustin Guy Defa’s sophomore feature Person to Person, a cross-section of New Yorkers tackles a single, anxiety-fueled day without ever crossing paths or their stories connecting in any meaningful way. A shameless homage to ensemble dramedies, Person uses its storylines and their triviality to convey the multilayered and quirky eccentricities of New York City. But it’s not about the story here, and that’s the bulk of Defa’s problem. His characters are loosely drawn and their behavior poorly justified by either logic or personality. Add to that the inherently choppy nature of the film’s structure and Person struggles to form a coherent message, let alone connect viewers to its storylines.
Person expands upon Defa’s 2014 short film, which focused on Bene Coopersmith as an impassioned record collector and store owner. Naturally, his character in the feature is the most crystallized and fleshed out. In this iteration, Bene is on the hunt for a rare Charlie Parker record. His quest takes him to the seller and, once he realizes it’s a scam, on a laughably slow bicycle chase through Brooklyn. All the while, his biggest concern seems to be whether his thrifted purple shirt looks good, if he should be wearing it.
Bene’s roommate Ray (George Sample III) is a jaded ex bent on revenge, posting nude pictures of his former girlfriend on the internet, unaware of the intricacies of revenge pornography. Inexplicably, he seems to have no grasp of how the internet works. Equally inexplicable is Michael Cera’s Phil, a newspaper reporter with no natural talent for the job and dreams of being a famous punk bassist. His ineptitude makes him wholly unqualified to train Claire (Abbi Jacobson), a cripplingly anxious former librarian whose instinct to run away from this job immediately is warranted. Rounding out the cast of characters is Wendy (Tavi Gevinson), an angst-ridden teen who insists on using vocabulary far more complex than her already complicated sexuality.
Characters don’t all receive the same amount of screen time nor do their stories warrant it, but certain storylines resonate much better, making the others seem even lesser. By design, Person doesn’t tell stories about important events in these people’s daily lives. At best, these stories are entertaining anecdotes to be told too many times over drinks, only emphasizing how mundane they are with each repetition. Unevenly paced, each story takes its time, and some meander. Defa’s dialogue and delivery are caricaturish and stilted, which combined with the hip Brooklyn characters makes the entire endeavor come across as a parody of the very characters and experiences it portrays.
Refusing to engage with the stories he tells, Defa derives no message from the lives of these volatile individuals. When Ray confronts his ex after posting pictures of her online, her dialogue doesn’t harness the hurt from this invasion of her privacy. Although Wendy has strong yet unrealized feelings for her promiscuous BFF, she has plenty to say about the pitfalls of dating boys and still ends up making out with Ben Rosenfield’s character. For a film that tries to be a living snapshot of New York, it struggles to be true to itself and its characters. Not to mention that the cast is far too white.
Defa’s short film experience shows through not only in Person to Person‘s structure but in its forced combination of short film plots. Individually, these stories may have resonated better. Together, they overshadow each other and, in turn, highlight the narrative pitfalls of its lesser developed tales.
The post Person to Person appeared first on Spectrum Culture.