Lili Reinhart and Mark Ruffalo Deliver an Emotional Gut-Punch in New Look at One of 2025’s Most Underrated Dramas [Exclusive]

mark-ruffalo-hal-and-harperImage via Mubi

After knocking it out of the park with critics with the back-to-back success of his latest features, Shithouse and Cha Cha Real Smooth, multi-hyphenate Cooper Raiff turned his attention to shorter-format storytelling. After striking up a deal with MUBI, his comedic coming-of-age series, Hal & Harper, was released globally on October 19 to much acclaim. In it, audiences follow along with the titular brother and sister — played by Raiff and Lili Reinhart, respectively — as the pair navigate their crossover into adulthood, codependent relationship, and their complicated bond with their father (Mark Ruffalo). Today, we at Collider are thrilled to share an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at what went into crafting two scenes from the fourth and fifth episodes.

Starting with episode four, Raiff gives viewers a vocab lesson as he walks them through the planning and filming that went down without permission in a McDonald’s drive-thru. With a notable face like Ruffalo’s in the driver’s seat, the trio of actors ran into a bit of a snag after the window employee recognized the actor from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but, as Raiff explains, the group was still able to lock into their characters and drive home the message behind the scene. Our look into the fifth episode begins with Raiff walking us through the romantic relationship between Harper (Reinhart) and Jesse (Alyah Chanelle Scott) and how he blended the past with the present in terms of the people they’ve become in the years since they first started dating. With Raiff reflecting on how the scene echoes where they’re at as a couple, this particular peek into Harper’s world is a heartbreaking one.

‘Hal & Harper’s Rise to Popularity

Even if our exclusive new behind-the-scenes look is your first time dipping into the world of Hal & Harper, you’ll get an incredibly good taste as to what the series is about. The family dynamics that are at play throughout the project, that fan out to the other characters who enter the lives of the titular siblings and their dad, can be both beautiful and gut-wrenching all at the same time. That’s probably why audiences and critics agree that the MUBI series is one of the best out now, with the former giving the title a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the latter giving it a 93% stamp of approval.

You can check out the exclusive behind-the-scenes video above and head over to MUBI to stream Hal & Harper.

Release Date

January 26, 2025

Runtime

110 minutes

Director

Cooper Raiff

Producers

Thomas Hartmann