Behind every musician like Drake are the people who make their music videos and behind them are more people. One of those people is Miguel (Miguel Huerta), a Hispanic Angeleno who does normal things like go on dates. He also goes on an audition as a stand-in for Pasqual Gutierrez (Pasqual Gutierrez, also a co-director). A music video director whose previous collaborations include the likes of Usher, he and his partner are still figuring things out while juggling being a husband. Part of his husband-like duties involve caring for his pregnant wife Christine (Christine Yuan) while still taking video directing jobs. Both he and Christine are in the business but somehow, important people like Aubrey Drake Graham (himself) can’t tell them apart. Miguel is there to help, and he does with Christine, but he’s not as good on set directing videos.

This film, in essence, is about watching a character’s idea fall apart, which comes later, but it has other interests. It shows Pasqual’s motivations for needing a doppelganger, which can comment even on things like economy and gender. Earlier on in the film, Pasqual talks to Christine’s father who should tell him to be there for her. But instead, Serious People has Christine’s father telling him to provide, giving him that pressure to have to double task. Pasqual also talks to his partner, trashing other directors, and the experiment involving Miguel proves suspicions about artists. To him, anyone within the industry can pick an outsider and turn them into an insider. Miguel, as it turns out, is not necessarily good to Christine’s friend and he also keeps bringing up IMAX while meeting with Pasqual.

Serious People‘s is ambivalent about its ‘anyone can direct’ ethos, which, as both an elitist and as someone who’s a double minority, I can relate. At least the film’s aesthetic reflects that thesis through visuals. Gutierrez and his co director Ben Mullinkosson idea aesthetically is to just plop the camera, catching characters from afar. In some ways, this works because the characters are abrasive enough, as if they’re acting for the nosebleed seats.

This also means, though, that Serious People employs cringe anti-comedy that’s been around for two decades, a trend that won’t die. I’m still on the fence even as I’m writing about the film – after all execution matters in final products. A part of me wants a version of this with a larger scope to truly compare Miguel and Pasqual. But this version seems adequate, showing well meaning characters as well as a minimalist self aware version of Drake.

Serious People is available to stream on MUBI, which-