The Fat
2018 · 37m
Directed by Nick La Marca
Tones: darkly comic, humorous
After a night of heavy drinking, Marvin DeMize must track down his trumpet with his brother Burt before the next day's gig, in a 37-minute comedy of everything going wrong.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A 37-minute hangover recovery mission sounds like the most predictable indie comedy premise imaginable, which is exactly why La Marca's commitment to letting chaos pile up without punching it up feels almost radical—he trusts the stupid logic of the situation more than the joke.
The film sits comfortably in a lineage of brother-buddy comedies and caper narratives, executing its formal restraint with the kind of patient timing that recalls early Coens, though it lacks the syntactic innovation that would elevate it beyond competent homage.
La Marca's decision to stretch a single night into 37 minutes—letting dead time and false starts accumulate rather than cut for pace—transforms what could've been a five-minute sketch into something with actual rhythm and weight, where the boredom becomes the comedy.
Reviews
36:55-minute in duration, director Nick La Marca’s The Fat has plenty going for it. A wonderful cast, memorable music and a hilarious story for the screen.