The Last Supper

This short was in part four of the "Short Cinema Journal"--a film I rented from Netflix but which appears to have originally been a monthly film series for people who like mediocre modern short films AND love to have the DVD chock full of commercials. I have so far tried two of the Journal's DVDs and felt enraged at the horrible way that a viewer needs to navigate the disk in order to see the films. Talk about an over-produced and overly complicated way of doing this! While I have and will continue to see as many shorts as I can, I really doubt if I'll bother with the Journals because of these factors.

Despite my utter frustration at this DVD and dislike of most of the films, I must say that I had a different opinion about THE LAST SUPPER. The film had very nice acting, nice direction and a story that sure gets your attention.

A group of six married friends are meeting for dinner. The banter is gay and light and the evening seems to be going quite well. However, when one of them leaves for a moment, the others decide to play a joke on him--and inadvertently set the wheels of chaos in motion!

I found this to be a very effective little shocker of a film. I later read that the actors weren't really aware of each other's lines or where the story was going while it was being filmed - so that the reactions filmed are supposed to be impromptu. This one's attitude reminded me a lot of In The Company of Men which came out just the year before. The guy reminded me of Aaron Eckhart as well. A perfect tight little short. You can find the movie on Short Cinema Journal 1:4 - Seduction. There are a couple of other worthwhile films on that DVD like T.R.A.N.S.I.T. and Lily and Jim. As I recall the movie is about 5 minutes long...