Boom Boom
2011 · 8m · USA
Directed by Larry Ziegelman
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: contemplative, darkly comic
Two old friends run into each other over coffee and fall into an increasingly heated discussion about life and death — mostly death — in this character-driven short.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Ziegelman understands that two people talking about death in a coffee shop is only boring if you let the camera get comfortable — here the framing keeps shifting slightly, as if the conversation is making the room itself uncertain, and that restlessness is exactly right.
Two guys at a table yapping about death for eight minutes. The premise dares you to call it pretentious, and at 7:54 it doesn't quite earn the dare — but the My Dinner with Andre comparison flatters it more than the comments section does.
Two characters, table, coffee, and the subject most people refuse to discuss — Sunset Limited compressed to eight minutes. The pressure of the single setting forces the honesty.