In Real Life
In Real Life (2020)
Created, written, and directed by: Kate Royal
Most queer people will tell you: coming out is not an event, it’s a process. Historically, in film and television, a character “comes out” and it’s over. They are queer. They start embodying that identity and participating in community.
Through the lens of its central character, Charlie, coming out as bisexual to her friends, Kate Royal’s In Real Life disrupts the standard coming out narrative and reveals how queerness is something we grow into, not become overnight.
Charlie’s revelation appears to prompt new conversations among her friends, showing the interdependence of queer community, how one person changing affects everyone else. Her childhood best friend Oscar reflects on how Charlie’s shift has him rethinking racial dynamics and the stability of his own sexuality. Erin, who is a lesbian, struggles with the lack of growth in her own sexual dynamic with her partner. And Cleo, a PhD student studying porn, catches their roommate masturbating, prompting a discussion about queer desire that also turns back on them and their interest in other people’s desires.
The series does get back to Charlie in the end, when she confronts her ex, realizing she has moved on.
The series shows how, especially in our twenties, queer people are coming to specific and unique understandings of sexuality where the importance of any single moment can be followed by more questions and exploration.
Kate Royal’s script and direction emphasizes the subtle nature of this exploration, aided by her choice of apartments as primary locations and cinematographer’s choice of close-ups throughout the story.
“I would say it’s very intimate,” she said. “The way we use the camera, it straddles that line of feeling voyeuristic, but not in a cynical pessimistic voyeurism. It is: we're inviting you into the space to be able to have an honest look at what they're going through.”