How do two people with only tenuous knowledge about one another become friends over Zoom? This richly touching, character-driven first feature posits one such circumstance. Well-off Oakland resident Adam (co-writer Mark Duplass) is at first put out by his husband’s gift of online Spanish language sessions with cheerful Costa Rican Cariño (co-writer and director Natalie Morales). A shocking event right before their second tutorial, followed by some mysterious bruises on Cariño’s face, lead to conversations that go deeper than the difference between ser and estar.

As the pair stumbles over their words in English and Spanish via the square boxes of their virtual encounters, awkward misunderstandings share space with poignant disclosures. Debuting filmmaker Morales—a Funny or Die contributor as well as a semi-regular on such shows as Parks and Recreation, Dead to Me, and Girls—brings a wonderful dynamism to the pandemic’s omnipresent meeting platform while Duplass offers a warm pathos as a privileged but empathetic middle-aged gay man who finds himself grasping for connection.