Short of the Day
From writer-director Pardis Parker.
As a parent-to-be of two adopted children, I can tell you firsthand that home visits from social workers are stressful under the best of circumstances. Someone has come to your house, your sanctum, to evaluate and scrutinize every detail of it and you and gauge whether or not you’re a worthy caretaker, and you never really know what’s going to reflect poorly on you until it does. But if I were to make a list of things you don’t want to happen while entertaining a home visit, near the top without a doubt would be “guy shows up unexpectedly, covered in blood, with a dead cow he needs help milking.”
That’s the set-up for the riotously funny short film Two Men, Two Cows, Two Guns, from writer-director Pardis Parker: an older couple are entertaining a social worker looking into their care of Jake, a young boy. Greg, the father – who’s played by John Dunsworth, a.k.a Jim Lahey from Trailer Park Boys – is just trying to read the newspaper when said-unexpected visitor shows up. As you might expect, things go hilariously downhill from there.
If Parker’s name sounds familiar to you, likely it’s from Mideast Minute, the satirical Comedy Central news show which he created and stars in as anchor Jamsheed al-Jamsheedy. Two Men, Two Cows, Two Guns showcases the same sense of wry, deadpan comedy of the CC series, but with a narrative flair that makes one hope there’s a feature coming soon from Parker. Check it out, then jump to his website for a couple other great shorts.
Related Topics: Comedy, Short Films
