People Places Things

Filmmaker Jim Strouse's comedy stars Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) as Will, a middle-aged New York graphic novelist and art school teacher whose marriage collapses after he discovers his wife with another man. One year after that unfortunate encounter, Will is living in an outer-borough studio apartment and only gets to see his 6-year-old twin daughters on weekends—except when his ex-wife, now pregnant from her lover and planning to remarry—unexpectedly dumps them at Will's cramped residence. Will's own love life receives a jump start when one of his students arranges a date with her mother, a Columbia University literature professor (Regina Hall). Although nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, this feels like an underdeveloped sitcom pilot that serves up one benign crisis after another as clueless Will struggles to connect with his children, his students, and the wider world. Optional. (P. Hall)