“Intentionally phony” is one of the hardest tones for a movie to pull off. Wes Anderson can do it, and Jim Jarmusch, Joel and Ethan Coen, and a handful of other filmmakers. Their characters and dialogue are rarely “realistic,” but they fit into a larger vision, and ultimately express something true, no matter how fake they may seem on the surface. Done well, overt artifice can be sublime. Done poorly, it seems like a shtick — and frivolous.
Writer-director Dustin Guy Defa’s “Person to Person” gets its phoniness right only about 25% of the time. A kind of “day in the life of a handful of colorful New Yorkers” piece, the film weaves together five stories — one of which stands on its own, while the other four are paired off two-by-two. Defa has spent most of his filmmaking career to date on short films, some of which (like “Lydia Hoffman Lydia Hoffman” and an earlier version of “Person to Person”) have been festival favorites. This feature — Defa’s second, after 2011’s “Bad Fever” — feels like an attempt to turn a handful of unfinished fragments into some grander statement about the odd quirks and everyday magic of NYC. But the slightness of the various segments only compounds as they intertwine.
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The best pieces of “Person to Person” star Bene Coopersmith (reprising his role from the earlier version) as Benny, a warm-hearted music-lover who spends his day chasing down the low-level hustler who sold him a fake copy of a Charlie Parker record. Coopersmith connects well with Defa’s overall vibe, playing a guy who always seems slightly removed from how normal people talk and act. He’s just as concerned about whether his new shirt is too flashy as he is about whether he just got conned out of $200. Benny’s the sort of character who’d be comic relief in most movies. But Coopersmith’s funky energy makes his scenes work.
Less successful is the side-plot to Benny’s story, involving his couch-surfing houseguest Ray (George Sample III), as he deals with the aftermath of uploading his ex-girlfriend’s naked pictures to the internet. Nothing of note happens in Ray’s segments, and the character himself barely exists. He has no evident skills, and no past beyond the one sordid incident (which he didn’t even do himself, because he’s so clueless about technology that he had to hire a guy). Similarly, “Rookie” founder/editor Tavi Gevinson doesn’t make much of an impression in her scenes as the high-maintenance high school intellectual Wendy, not because she lacks screen presence — she’s actually quite striking — but because the character’s such a cliché. There’s not much new to do with a “spending the day with a best friend and a best friend’s annoying boyfriend” plot.
The most “written” parts of “Person to Person” involve Abbi Jacobson as Claire, a fledgling crime reporter who’s shadowing her superior Phil (Michael Cera), a speed-metal-loving dork who puts on airs of cynicism and hardness to impress people. They’re chasing the story of a possible murder (involving a nervous socialite played by Michaela Watkins), which brings them to the fixit shop of Jimmy (Philip Baker Hall), a taciturn man who endures the daylong boastful jabber of his friend Buster (Isiah Whitlock Jr.). With a lot more craft and detail, these two parallel segments could’ve been beefed up into its own kooky little indie mystery/comedy, similar to “Wild Canaries” or the TV series “Search Party.”
The existence of well-acted, well-observed, genuinely funny New York-set TV shows like “Search Party,” “Broad City,” “Girls,” and “High Maintenance” tends to work against “Person to Person.” Defa’s doing his own thing, and not trying to copy anybody, but still… it’s clearly possible to craft an entertaining, artful ode to New York life that balances realism and absurdism without skewing too far in any particular direction. This movie is comparatively underbaked, with little apparent interest in capturing the actual rhythms and wrinkles of city life.
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What it does have going for it is its look. Shot on 16mm by cinematographer Ashley Connor, “Person to Person” has a wonderfully grainy, richly saturated image — like the opening credits to some old ‘70s urban sitcom or cop show. But even there, the disconnect between the quality of the visuals and what they’re actually supporting is a letdown. This is a terrific cast, appearing in scenes that have been beautifully framed and lit. Why weren’t they given anything memorable to do and say? [C+]
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