''Permission'' is a 2017 American romantic

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film written and directed by Brian Crano. The film stars

Rebecca Hall Rebecca Maria Hall (born 3 May 1982) is an English actress and filmmaker. She made her first onscreen appearance at age 10 in the 1992 television adaptation of ''The Camomile Lawn'', directed by her father, Sir Peter Hall. Her professional s ...

as a woman on the brink of a marriage proposal from her boyfriend (

Dan Stevens Daniel Jonathan Stevens (born 10 October 1982) is a British actor and writer. He first drew international attention for his role as Matthew Crawley in the ITV acclaimed period drama series ''Downton Abbey'' (2010–2012). He also starred as D ...

), but is impeded by the suggestion of her brother (David Joseph Craig) and his life partner (

Morgan Spector Morgan Michael Spector (born October 4, 1980) is an American actor. Spector has appeared in the TV series ''Allegiance'' (2015), '' The Mist'' (2017), ''Homeland'' (2018), and ''Pearson'' (2019), as well as the films '' The Drop'' (2014), ''Chris ...

) to "test date" other men before she ultimately settles down. Meanwhile, the film also follows the relationship of the gay couple as they decide whether or not to become parents.

Cast

as Anna, Hale's sister and Will's girlfriend *

as Will, Anna's boyfriend and Reece's co-worker * David Joseph Craig as Hale, Anna's brother and Reece's boyfriend *

as Reece, Hale's boyfriend and Will's co-worker *

Gina Gershon Gina L. Gershon (born June 10, 1962) is an American actress. She has had roles in the films ''Cocktail (1988 film), Cocktail'' (1988), ''Red Heat (1988 film), Red Heat'' (1988), ''Showgirls'' (1995), ''Bound (1996 film), Bound'' (1996), ''Face/ ...

as Lydia *

Jason Sudeikis Daniel Jason Sudeikis ( ; born September 18, 1975) is an American actor, comedian, producer, and writer. In the 1990s, he began his career in improv comedy and performed with ComedySportz, iO Chicago (Improv Olympic), and The Second City. In 20 ...

as Glenn *

Bridget Everett Bridget Everett (born April 21, 1972) is an American comedian, actress, singer, writer, and cabaret performer. She has starred in the semi-autobiographical 2022 HBO series '' Somebody Somewhere'', the movie ''Fun Mom Dinner'', and in a one-hour ...

as Charlie * François Arnaud as Dane * Raúl Castillo as Heron *

Sarah Steele Sarah Jane Steele (born September 16, 1988) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Marissa Gold on the CBS legal drama series ''The Good Wife'' (2011–2016) and its CBS All Access spinoff series ''The Good Fight'' (2017–20 ...

as Stevie *

Michelle Hurst Michelle Hurst (born June 1, 1953) is an American actress. She played Miss Claudette Pelage in the first season of the streaming television series ''Orange Is the New Black''. Life and career Hurst was born in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated ...

as Dr. Bennett

Release

''Permission'' acquired international distribution rights from London-based Film Constellation. The film premiered at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

to positive reviews. Good Deed Entertainment acquired the U.S. distribution rights. The film was released in the United States on February 9, 2018.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 68% based on 44 reviews, and an average rating of 6.2/10. The critical consensus reads: "''Permission'' holds together in spite of its uneven narrative thanks to eminently watchable work from leads Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 5390066, Permission
''Permission'' at Tribeca Film Festival website
2017 films 2017 LGBT-related films 2017 romantic comedy-drama films 2010s sex comedy films American LGBT-related films American romantic comedy-drama films American sex comedy films Films set in Brooklyn Gay-related films LGBT-related romantic comedy-drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films