A Quiet Storm in the Shape of a Family
“You are safe. All of the feelings are safe.”
That line lingers after watching the trailer for Hal & Harper, Cooper Raiff’s new MUBI original series—his first after the festival-darling films Shithouse and Cha Cha Real Smooth. The sentence feels like a whispered mantra to the characters, but maybe also to Raiff himself, a filmmaker obsessed with the fragile negotiations between comfort and pain.
The series—premiering on October 19, 2025, exclusively on MUBI—made its debut earlier this year in the Sundance Film Festival’s inaugural Series section, before screening again at the Tribeca Film Festival. That dual-festival rollout is fitting: this is a small story with large emotions, a domestic drama told with the same unvarnished intimacy that made Raiff a generational voice for millennial melancholy.
The Weight Between Two Names
At the center are Hal and Harper, played by Cooper Raiff and Lili Reinhart, two adult siblings bound by a closeness that’s both life-raft and trap. They live in Los Angeles, navigating messy relationships, old wounds, and that strange ache of still being someone’s child while pretending to be a functioning adult.
Their father (played by Mark Ruffalo) detonates the illusion of stability when he announces he’s having a baby with his new girlfriend, portrayed by Betty Gilpin. Suddenly, Hal and Harper must sift through the emotional debris of their upbringing—the blurred lines of love, loyalty, and dependency.
The trailer doesn’t shout; it hums. We see sunlight, half-spoken arguments, tears caught before they fall. The palette is soft and bruised, like late afternoon light through dusty blinds. It’s less a family series than a confessional.
Raiff’s Emotional Cinema, Now Serialized
Raiff directs all eight episodes and wrote each one himself, expanding his favorite thematic terrain: people too self-aware to be happy and too honest to lie about it. There’s an awkward beauty in that space—somewhere between the tenderness of Eighth Grade and the vulnerability of Blue Jay.
Produced by Small Ideas, with Raiff, Reinhart, Addison Timlin, Clementine Quittner, and Daniel Lewis as executive producers, the show’s behind-the-scenes DNA mirrors its on-screen themes. You can feel the collaboration; everyone here seems to have skin in the game.
Festivals have responded warmly. Hal & Harper earned praise at Sundance and Tribeca for its natural performances and unfiltered emotion—“sweet and charming, more emotional than comedic,” as IndieWire put it. That description fits. The humor arises quietly, like a sigh between tears.
The Emotional Geometry of Codependency
What makes Hal & Harper hit deeper than your average “indie sibling drama” is its disinterest in moralizing. Raiff doesn’t treat codependence as pathology but as inheritance—something handed down, not chosen. Ruffalo’s presence adds texture to that theme; he radiates the weary grace of a man who means well but can’t seem to stop repeating his mistakes.
And Reinhart—her work here might surprise those who only know her from Riverdale or romantic comedies. There’s a steadiness, a weathered empathy, that feels earned. When she looks at Raiff, it’s not the look of a sister or a lover; it’s something undefinable, almost frighteningly human.
A Soft Landing in a Harsh World
Raiff’s direction remains allergic to cynicism. Even when he writes about broken people, he refuses to mock them. Hal & Harper appears to continue that pattern—offering a space where feelings aren’t weaponized but observed, dissected, even celebrated.
And maybe that’s why this one resonates: it’s not about the drama of family collapse, but the grace of emotional survival. The idea that you can love someone too much—and still not enough.
Where to Watch and When
- Premiere: Sundance Film Festival 2025 (Series section)
- Subsequent Festival: Tribeca Film Festival 2025
- Streaming Release: October 19, 2025, exclusively on MUBI
- Cast: Cooper Raiff, Lili Reinhart, Mark Ruffalo, Betty Gilpin, Alyah Chanelle Scott, Addison Timlin, Havana Rose Liu, Asher Alexander
- Episodes: 8, all written and directed by Cooper Raiff
5 Things to Know About Hal & Harper
Raiff’s First TV Project – After two feature films, this marks his shift into serialized storytelling while maintaining his indie ethos.
Festival-Born Series – One of the rare shows to premiere at Sundance, highlighting the festival’s growing interest in long-form storytelling.
Lili Reinhart’s Career Pivot – Her most emotionally grounded role yet, balancing restraint with deep internal life.
Mark Ruffalo’s Quiet Authority – His performance reportedly anchors the show’s exploration of parental absence and rediscovery.
Streaming Home: MUBI – The platform continues to carve a niche for emotionally intelligent, auteur-driven series—this being its strongest original yet.
Final Thoughts
Maybe it’s fitting that Hal & Harper arrives on MUBI, a platform that thrives on patience. This isn’t prestige television chasing headlines. It’s a whisper that stays with you, a look across the dinner table that means both “I love you” and “please stop saving me.”
Cooper Raiff doesn’t just make stories—he makes emotional safe houses. And this one feels like his most fragile yet.
So, what do you think—can a sibling drama still surprise us in 2025? Or have we finally run out of new ways to love and hurt each other?
