7.7
Viewer Rating
Combines user and critic ratings from four sources
Comedy, Drama • 2020 • 81 min
The People Upstairs (2020)
The People Upstairs (2020)
Overview
A Spanish comedy-drama from director Cesc Gay, this film follows a long-married couple whose stalled relationship gets disrupted when their younger, more adventurous neighbors come for dinner and make an unexpected proposal. The premise sounds like a dinner-party farce, but the film is genuinely interested in what happens to desire inside long-term commitment. The Mixed label fits because the film pulls in two directions at once. It frames monogamy as a kind of slow erosion, and it treats sexual openness, including bisexuality, with warmth and agency. At the same time, it has no political agenda and stays focused on four specific people trying to feel something again. The tension between those two impulses is where the film lives.
Starring Cast
Javier Cámara • Griselda Siciliani • Belén Cuesta
Rating & Dimensions
Bias Rating
Analyzing...
Center
Political: Center
Diversity: Low
LGBTQ: Positive
Family Values: Strongly Progressive
Viewer Rating
7.7
Overview
A Spanish comedy-drama from director Cesc Gay, this film follows a long-married couple whose stalled relationship gets disrupted when their younger, more adventurous neighbors come for dinner and make an unexpected proposal. The premise sounds like a dinner-party farce, but the film is genuinely interested in what happens to desire inside long-term commitment. The Mixed label fits because the film pulls in two directions at once. It frames monogamy as a kind of slow erosion, and it treats sexual openness, including bisexuality, with warmth and agency. At the same time, it has no political agenda and stays focused on four specific people trying to feel something again. The tension between those two impulses is where the film lives.
Starring Cast
Javier Cámara • Griselda Siciliani • Belén Cuesta
Detailed Bias Analysis
Analyzing...
Center
Primary
Political: Center
Confidence: Medium
The film explores the complexities of long-term relationships, intimacy, and societal expectations through a personal and character-driven narrative. It focuses on universal human experiences of desire and communication breakdown, rather than promoting or critiquing specific political ideologies.
Diversity: Low
Confidence: Medium
The movie features casting that aligns with traditional representation for its cultural origin. Its narrative explores themes of relationships and social norms without explicitly critiquing traditional identities or making DEI themes central to its plot.
Secondary
LGBTQ: Positive
Confidence: Medium
The film portrays Salva and Laura, an upstairs couple, as sexually liberated individuals who openly discuss their bisexuality and same-sex experiences. Their confident and uninhibited depiction challenges the conventional views of the main characters, serving as a central theme for exploring sexual freedom and societal norms with dignity and agency.
Family Values: Strongly Progressive
Confidence: High
The narrative strongly critiques traditional monogamous marriage and celebrates sexual freedom and alternative relationship structures, presenting them as a path to greater honesty and fulfillment for the struggling main couple.
Trans: N/A
Confidence: High
The film's narrative focuses exclusively on the relationship dynamics between two heterosexual couples and their marital issues. No transgender characters or themes are present in the story, nor are they referenced in plot summaries or character descriptions. The plot point of the dinner party and the subsequent discussions solely involve cisgender characters exploring their relationships.
Female Combat: N/R
The movie does not contain any action or adventure elements.
Gender Swap: No
Confidence: High
The film is an adaptation of a play by the same director. The main characters' genders in the film are consistent with their established genders in the original play, with no changes in gender from the source material.
Race Swap: No
Confidence: High
The film is an adaptation of a contemporary Spanish play by the same director. The characters were not previously established as a different race in any widely recognized canon or historical record prior to this adaptation. The casting aligns with the original conception of the characters.
Hinduism: N/A
Confidence: High
Not depicted in the film.
Viewer Rating Breakdown
User Ratings
6.6
6.4
Critic Ratings
10.0
N/A
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