Deeply personal screenwriting and a superlative performance by Molly Shannon as a dying mom lift “Other People” above the level of many similar tragedy-inflected indie comedies.

Jesse Plemons plays a gay New York comedy writer who returns home to Sacramento to deal with his mother’s onrushing cancer even as his reserved father (Bradley Whitford) continues to have problems accepting his son’s sexuality.

Debut writer-director Chris Kelly, a writer on “SNL,” digs in rather than relying on contrived, movie-ready set pieces (as in the similar “The Hollars”), making this gay “Garden State” rich with naturalistic comedy as well as beautifully touching moments. When David (Plemons) says he wishes he could take his stricken mother on a trip around the world, she says, “My world is coming to the dinner table tonight. All I ever wanted was to be a mother.”