The Coffee Table (La mesita del comedor)

It doesn’t take long to work out that new parents Jesús (David Pareja) and María (Estefania de los Santos) are marital having difficulties.

The snake oil furniture salesman (Eduardo Antuña) does little more than aggravate them as he tries to get what appears to be a horrible coffee table out of the shop. Jesus likes it, Maria doesn’t. It’s a matter of wills that sees Jesús get his way.
What follows is by far and away one of the tensest, bleakest of black comedies of recent years.

The tension here is that the audience are fully aware of the situation that has arisen. Director Caye Casas and co-writer Cristina Borobia having established the situation leave the viewer as an observer as the story plays out between Jesús, María and others who come to the flat. All that left is the denouement.

Its macabre, lashed with black humour and bad taste, as it all begins to get more complicated and more players are introduced into the scenario. Jesús’s brother Carlos (Josep Maria Riera) with his 18 year-old girlfriend Cristina (Claudia Riera), with delusional young teenage neighbour Ruth (Gala Flores) further aggravating matters.

But Casas and Borobia don’t give an inch; there’s no respite for the audience, with a tight script that is brilliantly interpreted by the whole cast.

And it’s not fair (or possible) to single anyone out as it could give away some aspect of a film that is perfectly put together. Tightly directed, a glance here, a word there, relay the players' stress to the audience, while within the film the protagonists play it out. There’s a definite streak of cruelty here with the writers playing with both their characters’ and the audiences’ sensibilities.

Shot on a shoestring mostly in a single location, the claustrophobia of the small flat is suffocating. The darkness and humour don’t ease and placed with very human base emotions, only increase to the intensity of it all. Unmissable.

The Coffee Table will be available on digital from 20 May 2024.