It’s no secret anymore that Molly Shannon can act. From her chilling episode of Hannibal to the exquisite work she did with a small role on Enlightened, she’s spent the last few years knocking any part she got out of the park. And now, judging from the trailer to Chris Kelly’s film Other People, she’s finally landed a showcase. (It’s not her first starring feature film role, but we’d all do best to forget about Superstar.) In Other People, the opening-night film at Sundance this year, Shannon plays a woman dying of cancer. Breaking Bad’s Jesse Plemons is her son (and Chris Kelly stand-in), a comedy writer returning home to Sacramento, California, to help with her illness.
The dying-of-cancer breakout role is as much of an awards season cliché as Holocaust movies, but judging from the trailer, Shannon has the mix of pathos and black humor down pat. Her deadpan rejection of cremation—“I don’t like camping and I don’t like fires and I don’t want to be personally lit on fire,”—is tonally perfect. And Plemons, hapless on both Breaking Bad and Fargo, seems to be making the most of a meatier role here. (If there’s one situation where Plemons’ top-notch “politely confused” face is entirely appropriate, it’s dealing with the implacable approach of death.) Like Molly Shannon, writer/director Chris Kelly is making the jump from Saturday Night Live into a broader range of work. Here’s hoping they both make it.
