The Coffee Table (2022)

August 31, 2024 4:02 PM

Jesús and Maria love each other, endlessly, magnificently, even though they sometimes just don't notice. But hey, now that their little lump of love is born, everything's going to work out. Sure, Maria still has a bit of a controlling streak in handling the household, calling all the shots when it comes to the color of their apartment walls, the name of the baby, the food they eat, the TV shows they watch, the thickness of the toilet paper and their holiday destination. Jesús, to prove to her and himself he ain't some spineless trilobite but that he has a will of his own, gets to pick the coffee table. A hard-won victory that he's cherishing by picking out the most aggressively ugly little thing imaginable, the furniture equivalent of Liberace getting lost in Ikea. An unbreakable wonder, says the salesman. Overpriced, says Maria. It will bring boundless happiness to their lives, says the salesman. Their worst nightmare, says us....

Starring Josep Riera, David Pareja, Estefanía de los Santos, Claudia Riera.

Spanish title: La mesita del comedor

Directed by Caye Casas. Written by Caye Casas, Cris Borobia. Produced by Norbert Llaràs, Diego Rodríguez, Mª José Serra. Cinematography by Alberto Morago Muñoz. Edited by Caye Casas. Music by Bambikina.

86% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently available for digital rental in the US.

posted by DirtyOldTown (5 comments total)

WOW this is dark. This is on a level like Todd Solondz' Happiness mixed with the original version of Speak No Evil level dark. It's technically a comedy, but it is a rough, rough, rough watch. Traumatizing.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:04 PM on August 31 [3 favorites]

How dark is it? (Not gonna TW this, as it's one folks may not want to come up against even accidentally, so think real hard here before proceeding)

(early film inciting incident)

This is newborn decapitated on a pane of glass the first time his new father is alone with him dark.

posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:07 PM on August 31 [1 favorite]

I heard on Horror Threads how dark this was, and went into it not knowing any details at all. I’m glad I went in blind, and “enjoyed” it in the sense that I fully felt the gamut of reactions that the film intended. I would not recommend it to anyone I didn’t 100% know would appreciate it, but I think those few friends would really appreciate how unbelievably messed up it is.
posted by ejs at 8:07 PM on August 31

I enjoyed this, and agree it was pretty dark. It's good at starting from a horrifying incident and then going on to ratchet up the tension even more from there, and it manages to wring a fair bit of farce and black comedy out of the scenario while still working as a fairly serious psychological profile.
posted by whir at 9:20 PM on August 31

oh my...I will...think about...watching this...maybe.
posted by supermedusa at 9:29 AM on September 1