Written and directed by Dustin Guy Defa, the realist drama walks its audience through the streets of New York and along the way reveals human stories as they exist in a gritty, natural setting. Shot entirely on 16 mm film, the film operates through a series of vignettes representing characters who are interconnected solely through the universality of the human experience.

"We need stories made on this level, not made to meet formulas. It’s scary when it feels like you’re making the same movie over and over again.” Abbi Jacobson, the Broad City actress and one of the film's stars, said of its unconventional narrative structure.

Defa takes a realist approach to film making, reminiscent of the French New Wave. The humor is dry and understated, the setting commonplace, the style minimalist, the plots small-scale. The actors play only slightly different versions of themselves. For instance, Bene Coopersmith, an old roommate of Defa's and a music enthusiast, plays Bene, an avid vinyl collector.

The feature, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, was loosely developed from a 2014 short of the same title, also starring Coopersmith as Bene. The short, a hilarious depiction of Bene's efforts to kick a strange woman out of his apartment the morning after a wild party, earned Defa the DAAD Short Film Award at the Berlin Film Festival.

The reworked feature has picked up such talent as Michael Cera and Tavi Gevinson, and has expanded to encompass a wider range of stories and settings throughout New York.

Catch Person to Person in theaters July 28.