Matar el tiempo

The scouts

A blackout premise sounds like it could be treacly or sentimental, but de Paz sidesteps the obvious—this isn't about connection or survival-bonding, it's about two people genuinely bored together, which is way funnier and more unsettling than it has any right to be.

The film's restraint—its refusal to dramatize the blackout itself or lean on external stakes—places it in a lineage of intimate chamber pieces that trust duration and stillness; the editing rhythm mirrors the temporal dead zone the characters inhabit.

What makes this work is the decision to play the comedy *against* the whimsy—the lightness comes from precision in the performances and pacing, not sentiment, and that tonal tightrope on a three-minute budget is exactly the kind of specific choice that signals a filmmaker who knows what they're doing.