Kelly wrote and directed his first feature film , '' Other People '' , that premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival in the opening slot . The film is about a struggling comedy writer ( played by Jesse Plemons ) , who has just broken up with his boyfriend and moves from New York City to Sacramento to help his sick mother ( played by Molly Shannon ) . He has to live with his conservative father and younger sisters for the first time in many years and feels like a stranger in his childhood home . As his mother ’s health deteriorates , David tries to extract meaning from the awful experience and convince everyone that he 's doing okay . The film is loosely based on his own life drawing from his experience of losing his mother to cancer in 2009 . He was labeled one of the " 13 Hot Directors to Watch " at Sundance in 2016
2016 Sundance Film Festival
2016 Sundance Film Festival
Chris Kelly (writer)