2022 MAMMOTH FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW!
Alex (Ema Horvath) lives a life in which she feels out of place. Her perfect parents and younger, twin sisters often have Alex asking the question “Who Are You People?” After an inappropriate interaction with her teacher, Alex’s parents, Alyssa Milano (Judith) and John Alex (Carey), send her off to boarding school, from which she runs away. As she journeys away from Portland, in search of a life that her mother has been keeping from her, she will meet people that play a bigger role in her life than she could have imagined. Who Are You People is a story of finding yourself and redemption–and Alex may just come across both.
We’ve all likely heard of Alyssa Milano and Devon Sawa (Karl), but it’s less likely that you’ve heard of the young Ema Horvath. Horvath is Who Are You People’s lead, and she is tasked with guiding viewers through a dramatic story of self-appreciation and hardship. The young actor is incredibly talented and shines brighter than anyone else in the film. She is vibrant and completely full of life, and she conveys things like teenage angst, depression, and confusion with great beauty. She nails every line and brings to a life a character who, even though she may be a bit eccentric, can be understood by all. Horvath is wonderfully talented and incredibly inviting throughout her performance in Who Are You People. She’s the key to the film’s success and is possibly the best part of the entire film.
There is a combination of light and dark that exists in just about everyone in the film. Alex, Karl, and the rest of the characters possess something great, but they also contain struggle, and those struggles shine through the entire film. One scene in Who Are You People perfectly reflects how the light and dark battle it out throughout the film. In one scene–as a number of characters sit around an open flame, the light brightens and fades and projects onto each of the characters in the scene–and the idea of internal (and external) struggles are realized more than ever. The shadows on the faces of each character, the light that twinkles in each character’s eyes, and beautiful juxtaposition of both shed light on the brilliance of cinematographer Robert Lam. He captures the tone of each scenario throughout the film, and brings to life the hardships and the successes of everyone to life.
Who Are You People is hard hitting and full of gut-punching scenarios. As Alex’s story plays out and viewers are sucked into the whirlwind of emotion, this narrative reminds the world of so many beautiful things. However, Who Are You People doesn’t aim to overlook the hardships of life and tell viewers that everything will be alright if you let it–it’s honest in telling its audience that life simply sucks sometimes. That no matter how hard you try, sometimes the difficulties will get one over on you–but that giving up should never be an option. Who Are You People is ambitious in its cinematography, but wonderfully effective. Horvath does a wonderful job of conveying emotion, and her brilliance–together with everything else–helps create a wonderfully dark, relevant, and emotionally trying film.
Written & Directed by Ben Epstein.
Starring Ema Horvath, Devon Sawa, Yeardley Smith, Peter Parros, Siddharth Dhananjay, Reid Miller, John Ales, Alyssa Milano, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
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