The Coffee Table review.
For those who LOVED those unbearable following minutes of Hereditary.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
The Coffee Table
Directed by Caye Casas
Written by Christina Borobia and Caye Casas
Starring David Pareja, Estefania de los Santos, Josep Maria Riera, Cluadia Riera, Gala Flores, Cristina Dilla and Eduardo Antuña
The Coffee Table Review
When I reviewed Hereditary on the occasion of its fifth anniversary, special attention was paid to the aftermath of its most famous scene. Those interminable minutes where a character keeps a horrible secret to themselves…too in shock to alert anyone. We know the agony will come to an end eventually. The sun will rise. The horror will be discovered. The Coffee Table is a big fan of those moments spent in the interim. It’s going to make you live in them for a very long time.
Let’s get this out of the way immediately…this is not what you expect from a movie pitched as being about a killer coffee table. In fact, it’s the opposite. Abandon any thoughts about a goofy slasher comedy centered around a malevolent piece of furniture. The Coffee Table is as dark as it gets. It’s also a difficult movie to discuss without breaking our no spoilers in new movie reviews rule. The big moment in the story happens early on. You’ll no doubt figure out what it is if you continue to read this review. Stop here if you want to go in completely unspoiled. Even if I leave out the moment…you’ll know.
Still here? Ok then. It’s on you.
Jesús (David Pareja) and Maria (Estefania de los Santos) have recently welcomed their first child into the world. For Maria, it’s a dream come true. Jesús is having a more difficult time with it. He finds himself in charge of nothing. His wife chose the baby’s name, the color of his room…even that they were ready for a child in the first place. That’s why he digs his feet in on the new coffee table. A completely unimportant detail that he needs to oversee. Even if it means selecting one that Maria can not stand to look at.
The salesman promises the table will change their lives for the better. With its discounted price and unbreakable glass…it’s an investment any smart person would jump at. Jesús wins this one battle…and Maria won’t let him hear the end of it. If that wasn’t enough…their 13-year-old neighbor is threatening to tell the world about Jesús’s love for her. A situation that seems made up and Jesús handles as delicately as he can. Add in the stress of his newly vegan brother’s impending arrival (along with his 18-year-old girlfriend) and a baby that began crying the moment his mother left to do some shopping…it’s safe to say Jesús is having a bad day.
That’s when he realizes the table is missing a screw. It’s bad enough that his wife argues with him endlessly about the table…he can’t even finish building it. A phone call to the salesman results in a promise to bring the missing part. It’s the last thing that goes right for Jesús in The Coffee Table.
I’ve purposely talked solely about the early buildup in The Coffee Table. But you’ve probably figured out the terrible thing that’s going to happen by now. What you can’t predict, however, is exactly how painful The Coffee Table makes it. Think of those moments in Hereditary. Now imagine living in them for an hour. There’s no second trick here. No alternative purpose. A lovely day happens around Jesús as he attempts to prolong the inevitable for an unbearable amount of time.
It’s an amazing, mostly silent, performance from Pareja. He wrings every ounce of uncomforting pain out of his situation. He is in a different movie than everyone else for most of The Coffee Table. Maria and their dinner guests have lovely chats about motherhood, veganism, family… Jesús sits on the most horrific ticking time bomb imaginable. We sit with him the entire time.
To call The Coffee Table dark is an understatement. It’s one of the best movies that I have no idea how to recommend to anyone. Usually, those types of movies are guilty pleasure types. Movies so over the top fun that you love them…even if they’re pretty much trash. The kind of movie you’d expect the story of a killer coffee table to be. But that’s the trick. The Coffee Table isn’t the story of a killer coffee table. It isn’t the story of a coffee table at all. It’s the story of the worst day possible. A day you live alone. The only release coming from the inevitability of it getting even worse.
The Coffee Table is classified as a dark comedy. It should be spelled out with the word dark in giant bold letters. It’s the ultimate kind of gallows humor. When things really can’t get any darker…all you can do is laugh at the absurdity of the prolonged tension. Thinking about what is sitting underneath the living room armchair…wondering how and when it will be discovered. Wanting and not wanting it to be in equal measure.
Scare Value
We haven’t seen a movie like The Coffee Table before. We’ve seen moments like it…never expecting someone to make an entire film out of that feeling. Led by a top-notch performance and an impressive ability to drag out the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach…The Coffee Table is one of the best movies that is impossible to recommend. … You should definitely watch it.
4/5
The Coffee Table Link
Rent/Buy on VOD from Amazon
