Me Him Her shows a few too many signs of being a directorial debut. It can’t decide what kind of reality it wants to set itself in, the camerawork is surprisingly boring and even bad in parts. But unlike so many directorial debuts, when it works, it’s quite funny and endearing.
The movie follows Corey who’s been summoned by his best friend Brendan to come to Los Angeles to help him come out as gay. Brendan and his agents fear his acting career will be demolished if he reveals his sexuality, so Corey has to help him deal with these anxieties. However, Corey becomes distracted by Gabbi, who has just broken-up with Heather, her narcissistic, manipulative girlfriend. Corey and Gabbi hook up and have mixed feelings afterwards: They both can’t understand why she’s so haunted by someone as terrible as Heather, and also, what does them having sex do to the identity they’ve defined for themselves and the rest of the world?
Me Him Her often escapes into the fantastical and the absurd with hilarious results, but the movie doesn’t keep these elements consistent enough. They come and go. They feel like they could have been a great tool to enhance the rather simple, slice-of-life story at the center of the film. But they just come off as insubstantial. We also never quite come to understand Corey as a character. He’s not the one that has to go through the most difficult journey, but the story is mainly told from his point of view. A certain nuance is missing from his character that would’ve made him more interesting as a character. At a rather scant 97 minutes, it almost feels too long. Performance-wise Dustin Milligan, Luke Bracey and Emily Meade do quite well by themselves, though. They fully commit themselves to their characters and their comedic timing is just on point. They manage to carry the movie very well.
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Should Landis do another feature, I hope he makes it better than this one. There are sudden signs here and there of a better director, but too many of his choices come off as amateurish and unimaginative. One can hope that he has learned from this and make a better film next time. As a writer, he’s pretty much got it. As a director, we’ll have to wait and see.
Me Him Her is available on VOD through outlets such as amazon.com.
