Touch Base

Lili Taylor is spectacular in what is essentially a one-woman show about Darcy Winningham, the brown-nosing, office drama queen who doesn't do much of anything, but who's very good at looking busy while gabbing on the phone. She chats away all morning, making and receiving calls, but her best friend, who works in another department in the same office, isn't answering.

It's sort of a comedy, but a very black comedy. As the morning wears on, the bosses keep walking by Darcy's desk. Darcy senses that something is afoot, but she's not sure what. Then she learns that one of her friends was fired, and she has to prepare her friend's presentation for a meeting on very short notice. You can see the panic rise as the ground slowly melts beneath her. Is the company making some wholesale changes? Is Darcy about to be fired? Did her best friend also get fired? But if that's the case, then why hasn't anyone seen her and why isn't she answering her home phone? Did something sinister happen to her friend?

Exceptionally well-done short.

Always a Lili Taylor fan, I was amazed at how totally connected the actor was to every moment of every situation, as her interruptions run 3 and 4 deep. And to do it in one take makes this an incredible feat, for the actor, director and crew.

Touch Base is 15 minutes of being on the edge! Short films are always fun because it starts, gets right to the point, & then ends... & this delightful comedy is exactly that. Like most office jobs, gossip & hear-say causes Darcy (played by the funny Lili Taylor) to be paranoid. She becomes so distraught over her two friends at work because one gets laid off & the other is a no-show...to make matters worse, she can't get in touch with them, so she panic's! Reminds me of Clockwatcher's or Office Space, just shorter. 1-10 (7)