A family takes stock of life in The Humans, the feature debut of writer/director Stephen Karam.
Holidays can be hard. Getting together with your family, the people you need but didn’t choose can bring all your insecurities to the surface. Then you have to fill the time, put together elaborate meals, get yourself and your space in tip-top shape for their prying eyes. That’s exactly what the family in The Humans are doing, gathering for a Thanksgiving celebration that may not go as planned but could be precisely what they need.
Karam adapts the intimate piece from his own Tony award-winning play. Yep, that means it’s in danger of having that claustrophobic stage feeling, but that might play to the film’s advantage. This is about uncomfortable intimacy, after all, and it does take place in the cramped quarters of an NYC duplex. Claustrophobia will only heighten the pent-up emotions that promise to come pouring out.
Play adaptations also mean meaty roles for its small cast, and such an esteemed adaptation naturally attracted top performers. Beanie Feldstein and Steven Yeun play the young couple in the family, Amy Schumer the unmoored daughter, Richard Jenkins and Jayne Houdyshell the reigning mother and father, and June Squibb the matriarch.
All will come together, with plenty of tumults, in a tradition that’s spanned the ages. Not Thanksgiving, of course, but the tradition of families gathering to try to make sense of it all.
The Humans is directed by Stephen Karam and stars Beanie Feldstein, Steven Yeun, Amy Schumer, Richard Jenkins, Jayne Houdyshell, and June Squibb. It will be released in the US on November 24th, 2021. Further release dates are not currently known.
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