Crackers

A superb black comedy short that has Gus (D'Onofrio) married to Cat (Bonner), a hot redhead almost half his age, invites over his wife's parents (Hedaya and Vaccarro) over for the household's usual Sunday dinner where they are joined in by a neighbor's kid (Mora) whose single mother is off to work and the couple is more than happy to accommodate him. The dinner setting was to be start of the series of incidents that escalates into an explosive finale where we get to see Mr. D'Onofrio in his thespic element where arriving from sanity to cuckoo-landia is as effortless as a flick of the switch, while Ms. Vaccarro provides an exceptional loud-mouthed foil, an agent of chaos to the opera-loving cook's domestic life. The straightforward presentation of the narrative helped a lot in making the audience focus more on highlighting the filmmaker's flair for depicting a man's descent to near-madness. This is especially apparent in the scene where the Gus character finally snapped though there wasn't much technical complexity in the manner it was presented but it is more than adequate in helping create an impact in enhancing the rhythm of the comedic narrative, the half-hour running time feels like a breeze.

Gus' banter with the blind bookie (Richards) and the barber (Laciura) constitute another sphere in cook's life that shows another facet to the protagonist's character. In particular, the one that happened in Gus' garden and the barber shop rivals that of the dinner table scene, never drab and makes for such interesting minor characters. The same can be said of Gus' interactions with his wife and the neighbor's kid that helps display a softer side to Gus' persona.

The film owes much to the director and the well-structured script that pulled out some fascinating performances from all the actors involved in this funny story.

My rating: B-flat.

Crackers is a brilliantly written film, with an assemble of fantastically talented actors, masterfully directed, who deliver high quality performances in an easy to watch short.

Crackers takes the mother in law nightmare tale to the extreme. One of the first scenes in the film, is a deeply uncomfortable dinner, where cultural differences, personalities and sensibilities clash in a very entertaining way. This scene by itself, makes the film worth the watch!

The set design team did an excellent job in bringing Gus's world to life, a perfect comfortable home, with lots of personal touches, filled with the sound of tasteful opera. They also did a great job in progressively destroying it!

Mike Latino's cinematography adds depth to the film with well composed, interesting shots, enhanced by a great grade, that brings out all the right colours.

A must watch!