With the recent death of SJR-7 in the State House, Indiana has found itself firmly planted in the national debate over same-sex marriage. Into that tumultuous debate comes Drew Emery’s Inlaws & Outlaws - an attempt to look past the political rhetoric and get to the heart of the issue.

This might imply that the film is some sort of polemic, a diatribe that eschews the views of those who believe that marriage should be a union between a man and woman. That would have been a detriment to this charming documentary that instead chooses to focus on a variety of individual experiences. Emery introduces the audience to a diverse cross-section of men and women – single, married, divorced, widowed, gay, straight, bisexual, and everyone in between. Each is offered the opportunity to relate their personal tale. There’s two Morman women, once secret college sweethearts until one of them decides she must follow her family’s wishes and marry a man. There’s the nice girl from Brooklyn who always seems to choose the wrong guy – until she finally meets a man almost too good to be true. There’s the ex-Marine who had no idea what a relationship was until he stumbled across his future partner one night at a bar.

These stories meld into a collective narrative that explores what it means to love and to commit to that love for eternity.

Inlaws & Outlaws is a funny, compelling portrait of that emotional state that makes us all a little woozy – regardless of who sweeps us off our feet. - Wm. Brian Owens