Other People’s Fun

Lane (Her) offers a sharply observed psychological drama about friendship and the pitfalls of social media. Ruth lives alone after her husband left her and supports herself as a freelance translator. At her high school reunion, almost none of her classmates remember her except for Sookie, now a wealthy health and beauty writer, whom Ruth has been following for years online. As they catch up, Ruth feigns ignorance, afraid to embarrass herself by exposing her fixation on Sookie’s success. The two strike up a relationship that looks like friendship, but which Lane shrouds in sinister undertones. Ruth swipes Sookie’s designer sunglasses when she’s not looking and seethes as Sookie prattles on about feeling adrift without ever asking Ruth about her own travails. As Ruth bitterly reflects, “This is the way it was when we were girls... some people need the light, others shrink from it.” Still, she remains eager to please, so she lets Sookie use her apartment for trysts with a lover. A subplot about a sex abuse scandal at their old high school feels shoehorned in, but the narrative’s rickety structure is made up for by the women’s increasingly complex series of power plays. Like an influencer’s feed, this is hard to look away from. Agent: Grainne Fox, UTA. (Nov.)