Short of the Day
But it is pretty hilarious film.
I want you to sit back and think about the strangest, grossest, most-inappropriate thing you could ever say to whichever of your parents shares your gender, then I want you to toss that out the window because I guarantee you Andrew Laurich and Gabriel Miller have outdone you.
They are the co-writers of A Reasonable Request (which Laurich directed), a very, very, very dark comedy starring John Ennis and Stephen Ellis as a father and son meeting up for what the former thinks is a casual dinner at a diner, and what the latter has set up to pose the titular question. There’s money involved – a lot of it – but that still doesn’t make things easier for pop to swallow. I’ve said enough.
A Reasonable Request is an oddly-insightful look at greed, desperation, justification, and absurdity, not to mention the boundaries of familial support. DO NOT WATCH THIS NEAR ANY CHILDREN OR PEOPLE WHO CAN FIRE YOU. The visuals are tame but the dialogue is NSFW as hell, and taken out of context it could paint you in a really weird light. Outside those conditions, though, you owe yourself this WTF-short that was an official selection of last year’s Sundance, SXSW, and Seattle Film Festivals, and which won Best Comedy at the 2016 Holly Shorts Film Festival.
Personally, I can’t see how Ennis and Ellis got through this one-scene shoot without losing it; the absurdities flying here had me in uncomfortable hysterics. There are limits, and there are films that push past them. A Reasonable Request pushes past the films that push past the limits. Care to test yours? Press play.
Related Topics: Short Films
