“Actual People” (2021) begins with a poem titled “I Know I Am Not an Easy Woman.” This epigraph immediately invites questions about what kind of difficult woman will be portrayed. Is she difficult because she resists patriarchal conditioning and speaks out against sexist oppression? Or is she difficult because she is plagued by unfortunate events caused by her lack of decorum? Riley (Kit Zauhar) is decidedly in the latter camp, a fact that makes her both compelling and exasperating to watch.
Riley is a 22-year-old biracial Asian American college senior stuck in a state of arrested development. She is about a week away from graduation and describes herself as “absolutely terrified” of what comes next. Her lack of post-grad plans earns her a steady stream of admonishments in nearly every conversation. As a philosophy major, she declares she has no skills; the bigger issue is that she has made no plans. The film chronicles the series of increasingly disastrous choices she makes as she avoids thinking about what comes next.
As easy as it is to cringe at Riley, it is hard not to root for her. She is winsome and surrounded by friends who love her. She is also reeling from heartbreak: her long-term boyfriend broke up with her, and she is making up for lost time by exploring hookup culture and pursuing a new crush.
Riley’s ne’er-do-well nature informs much of the humor. In one scene, she realizes she has forgotten about the deadline for a paper. Her classmate suggests she try Adderall to help her focus. Her first time on the substance allows her to complete the assignment, but she ends up enduring an awkward conversation with her professor, who informs her she is failing the course. The scene highlights her passivity and inability to fight for herself. Riley’s biggest concern? Whether she will still be able to walk at graduation if she has to retake the course during the summer.
The trouble with walking around with a broken heart is that it can make you feel like nothing matters. Interestingly, there is a parallel between Riley no longer being half of a couple and her difficulty navigating her biracial identity. During an outing with friends, there is a debate about whether Asian Americans should benefit from affirmative action. Riley remains mum on the subject.
At another point, Riley offers to get boba tea with a white male friend. She is unsure if she likes boba, but all the other Asian and Asian American students drink it, and she does not want to feel left out. This invitation leads to a microaggression that Riley notices but does not quite know how to challenge.
In addition to starring as Riley, Zauhar wrote and directed the film. “Actual People” is her directorial debut and a work of autofiction. Zauhar also took inspiration from her life by casting her sister, Vivian Zauhar, as Riley’s younger sister, Valerie. Vivian is a breath of fresh air in the role — extremely charismatic and a natural performer in front of the camera. Valerie also embodies a different version of the “difficult woman” archetype: she is assertive, unapologetic and willing to deceive to get her way.
Whereas Riley faces critique and skepticism from peers and professors, it’s Valerie who levies the harshest blow. During a tense argument, she tells her older sister that she has “no sense of self.” Riley prides herself on never being offended, but Valerie’s words cut deep. Riley has been so busy distracting herself — pretending that college is not “real life”— that she’s never had the conviction to just pick something to be and give it her best.
Visually, the film has a cinéma vérité quality. The handheld camera work and extended scenes of dialogue are used to confer an organic look to the film. Voiceover is used for text messages, with characters using flat intonations to convey information, underscoring how easily meaning gets lost in digital communication. There are also small vignettes — styled like Instagram stories — that appear on screen throughout the film. It is a microcosm of how people use technology to keep tabs on one another even as they remain emotionally out of touch.
My affinity for “Actual People” stems from how sharply it underscores the problems of living in an information-saturated society. Knowing more doesn’t make it any easier to know what to do with your life. However, that doesn’t spare us from the responsibility of choosing how to live — even if we’re committed to being difficult people.