They/Them/Us was a genuinely entertaining Friday night experience but truly felt confused in every way possible. To start off, Amy Hargreaves was excellent. She was the only character we thoroughly enjoyed. We also thought the sex-positivity within an older demographic was something less represented in popular media and depicted well in the movie. The movie did not depict the BDSM community as weird and instead, as very excepting. Also, being Columbus natives we loved the shots from around the city.

As for the rest of the movie, it seemed progressive through a Millenials eyes' in the worst way possible. First, the title of the movie, They/Them/Us, was clearly getting at the conjoined divorce family coming together and getting along. While it was a clever pun of them coming together, they severely stereotyped the gender non-conforming character. They made Charlie a saint for just respecting their pronouns; however, all the characters acted as if they/them pronouns were strange-- even the kids. It just felt like a basic view of nonbinary people.

It was obvious how the drug addiction plotline was under-researched and hysterical. Both weed and LSD are non-addictive drugs. The way weed is villainized is confusing. First, Charlie partook in smoking on more than one occasion. The first time the kids really got along on screen was when they got high. But for some reason, it was seen as the worst thing possible. Charlie sent his son away for smoking weed and doing LSD, but partook in it himself and was boiling at the idea his son could've done that. He treated his son so poorly when he said adults and kids "aren't equals" and he doesn't need his son's respect.

Lastly, Charlie's relationship with his students was really weird. We get that he wasn't religious, but talking about BDSM to his young students was uncomfortable and looked suspicious considering his briefly mentioned and brushed over past. The movie was a cacophony of stereotypes and didn't bring anything constructive to the nuanced conversations with which it attempted to grapple.

Slow, awkward, and felt disjointed. Alot going on and the scenes simply do not connect together.

People are being encouraged to come here and give this movie the best rating no matter what. That the low ratings are from the "radical right". I'm not going to blindly review. I decided to watch it and see for myself before I reviewed it. The movie does not deserve the best rating. It was an okay movie. Artificial high reviews are not going to change that.

This is a small budget movie, and that is not a bad thing, but it also means that the story and the acting have to be good. The actors, everyone of them, deliver. Joey Slotnick had plenty of opportunities to make his character absolutely ridiculous. Instead he hits precisely the right balance of smart, funny, awkward, caring, and lost that most of us feel in our own lives. Sometimes he gets it right, sometimes he gets it wrong, and sometimes he just can't win. But you like him and you root for him. Amy Hargreaves is amazing, as well. She provides an extremely nuanced performance as Lisa, portraying her as highly competent in many areas of her life and less confident in others. Sometimes placing her needs (and her kink) on the back burner in order to preserve her relationship and her family. To sum up her character and performance in a word, it has to be charming. I think all of the actors portraying the kids have bright futures ahead, because every one of them nailed it.

As far as story, the film either needed another ten or fifteen minutes or a subplot cut. While billed as a comedy, there are some pretty heavy dramatic moments. Having said that, the script was well written and the story is complex without being overly opaque. There are some very funny moments in this film, so it deserves the comedy tag, but dramedy might be a better description.

Now we come to the kinky bits. This was refreshingly realistic. Most people into kink have jobs, families, bills to pay, and the normal headaches of living. This film does a nice job of showing that. They have fun with kink and kinksters while also respecting it, so kudos for that.

All in all, I really liked this film. It was nice to watch a film that was actually shot in reality and not crammed with CGI. If you are from the Columbus, OH area, you'll probably have a lot of fun recognizing the locations. The acting was great and the story was very good. Worth your time.