by Chris Feil

Writer/director Chris Kelly has quietly become one of our sharpest surveyors of gay life in a very straight world. His is a gay perspective adept at illuminating the very specific mileage between not only queer folk and the straight people who think they understand them, but also between gay generations often lumped into one.

We saw this at play this year in the new beloved series he co-created, The Other Two, but we first got that insight in his underrated debut feature Other People. This semi-autobiographical dramatic comedy saw a thirty-year-old gay writer David (played beautifully by Jesse Plemons) returning to his suburban home to care for his mother Joanne (the immaculate Molly Shannon), recently diagnosed with cancer. All of that human drama, including its gay textures, get embodied in one perfect song choice that Kelly uses throughout...