“Why is it a crime to want to be friends with your ex-boyfriend?” 20-something writer Diana (Zosia Mamet) casually asks. Friendship seems like a necessary route — especially when she realizes that said ex-boyfriend (Matthew Shear) is coincidentally her new downstairs neighbor.
Written and directed by Sophie Brooks, “The Boy Downstairs” follows Diana as she moves back to New York City following some time abroad. Looking for a fresh start, she finds an apartment in Brooklyn that inadvertently reconnects her with ex-boyfriend Ben. Prior to the film’s Tribeca Film Festival premiere, Brooks told Women and Hollywood that “this close proximity makes her reexamine a relationship she thought was in the past.”
As the new trailer suggests, this forces her to reexamine herself, too. Brooks hopes that, overall, this quirky and relatable film leaves people “feeling inspired to be a little braver in love and life.”
The film’s cast also features Sarah Ramos (“Parenthood”), Deirdre O’Connell (“The Path”), and Diana Irvine (“Manson’s Lost Girls”).
“The Boy Downstairs” opens in New York February 16 and in Los Angeles February 23. A wider release will follow.