Bottom Feeders
2025 · 7m · United States
Directed by Freddy Burgos
Tones: humorous, theatrical
A one-shot comedy about an acclaimed chef whose family dinner nobody seems to enjoy.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A one-shot about a chef's dinner party where nobody likes the food is such a obvious setup for sentiment that it almost circles back to being subversive—except it doesn't quite commit to the ugliness required to make that work.
The theatrical restraint of a single take grounds what could be sitcom beats into something closer to Cassavetes—a formal constraint that dignifies the family's quiet disappointment.
That one-shot gambit is the entire film, and it lives or dies on whether Burgos trusts the camera stillness and the actors' micro-expressions to carry the comedy; if that's where the budget went, this could be everything.