The Last Fry
2026 · 17m · USA
Directed by Sam Zarrin
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: darkly comic, melancholic, tender
Bruce, recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, attempts to gather his fractious family for one last happy memory by the beach, only to find that his family's incessant bickering and self-absorption stand stubbornly in the way of his modest wish.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Zarrin threads the needle between deadpan comedy and genuine grief without letting either mode dominate — the family is funny and exhausting in exactly the way grief works when you're surrounded by people who love you badly.
Terminal-cancer-dad-wants-one-good-day from Omeleto, the YouTube short-film sausage factory. The Savages did this better twenty years ago and didn't need the dysfunctional-comedy-as-grief-delivery thesis spelled out for it.
A Savages-adjacent register that asks comedy and terminal grief to share a single chassis — admirable ambition, though the Omeleto premiere context tends to flatten exactly this kind of tonal balancing act. With Mel Rodriguez and Charles Baker the performances are likely the load-bearing wall.