Director: Andy S. McEwan

Author: Andy S. McEwan

Forged: Tony Hamilton, Anne-Marie Feeney, Maisie MacDonald, Andy S. McEwan

Working time: 6mins

Within the two movies which have come IFL’s approach because the gloriously foolish Autumn By no means Dies, one factor has develop into more and more clear. Chris Fast is wasted on simply the enhancing operate. He took a back-seat for the comedic misfire that was Care and Restore, and having accomplished so once more, his dynamism is once more sorely missed in Shortbread.

Fast’s accomplice from Autumn By no means Dies, Andy S. McEwan, takes the reins as each the movie’s sole script author and its director – and other than a few flashes of refreshing absurdity, serves up an earthly story, awash with drained, outdated clichés.

From the outset, it’s clear what we will probably be in for. If the primary 20 seconds of a meagre six-minute working time consist of somebody parking their Renault Clio in a quiet suburb, it hardly foreshadows a riotous comedic outing. When that is adopted by middle-aged divorcee Tam struggling to speak together with his ‘teenage’ kids as a result of one is listening to heavy steel (in 2024) or as a result of they’re a shuffling stereotype ripped from a mid-90s Harry Enfield sketch (McEwan ill-advisedly performs Paul, his face enveloped by a hoody, however his physique unmistakenly the hulking body of a grown man somewhat than a self-conscious teen), that’s confirmed.

As Tam, actor Tony Hamilton does handle to offer off the vitality of the world’s most divorced man – one thing maybe helped by him seemingly cosplaying as infamous transphobe Graham Linehan – and to his credit score, he very a lot comes throughout as a person who you’d need to legally sever your self from. Each line comes with a type of slimy passive-aggression – giving the impression he has loads of nasty issues to say, however doesn’t have the heart to say them straight. When his ex-wife Michelle (Anne-Marie Feeney, who does effectively to current a powerful and affected person persona right here) approaches the automotive to ask why he was late bringing the youngsters again after the weekend, it doesn’t take lengthy for a few of this spite to seep out.

Initially the pair commerce barbs over the titular shortbread, which has brought on Tam’s lateness – caught behind an previous time-waster within the grocery store. If the movie’s battle-lines had remained drawn on this splendidly petty squabble, then it might need been loads simpler to search out Tam endearing somewhat than grotesque – which might be useful contemplating he’s the primary character. Nevertheless it doesn’t final. When Michelle suggests Tam ought to cease taking the youngsters swimming, as a result of Paul “can’t swim”, and Mary (the daughter, performed by Maisie MacDonald is confusingly credited as Zoe) is “uncomfortable in her swimming swimsuit”, the world’s most divorced man wastes no time in utilizing the chance to each say one thing creepy about his youngest, and one thing misogynistic about his ex-wife. In any case, why would his daughter be ashamed of her physique, he asks Michelle, when “she has your determine” – one thing he grins at fondly, earlier than following up with “earlier than you had the youngsters.”

Righteously, McEwan’s script does then permit Michelle to hit Tam the place it hurts – informing him he might “afford to lose a couple of kilos” himself, whereas grabbing and smashing the packet of shortbread he has left sitting on his dashboard. “Look what you’ve accomplished” he shrieks, instantly regressing to the sulking stature of a toddler who’s dropped his ice-cream cone. It’s one of many funniest moments of the movie – however feels prefer it ought to be the primary of a few extra main comeuppances for this unmitigated jerk. And it doesn’t really feel just like the second underwritten occasion on this story lives as much as that.

Taking pity on Tam, Michelle invitations him for a drink and chat later within the week. Nonetheless, what she sees as a chance to bury the hatchet, and easily present a extra cordial setting for his or her shared offspring, he sees as a clear and apparent alternative to have intercourse. The movie hard-cuts to what’s purported to be later within the week (however the shining solar and shifting shadows of the home counsel was filmed later that very same day), and Tam being unceremoniously booted out of the home – sans trousers. With Michelle absolutely clothed as she hurls his denims (which have extra shortbread crumbled within the pocket) at him, it seems that he had barely crossed the edge earlier than starting to disrobe, because of his weird perception that she was “gagging for it”.

It’s a horrendously rushed finale – which, regardless of the precise intent was, finally underscores Tam as an irredeemably horrible man Tam. And in that context, it makes it completely weird to go away the movie’s last joke in his fingers. With Michelle threatening to name the police if he doesn’t instantly go away, he struggles to achieve entry to his Clio – as a result of the keys she has thrown out together with his denims “aren’t even my keys”. It’s the type of shrug-and-sigh ending you’d usually attribute to a personality who’s a relatable buffoon – however exactly how Tam is meant to be relatable, and to whom, is a troubling query all of its personal.

It doesn’t assist that the utilitarian presentation of the movie gives no distraction from the motion, reminiscent of it’s. Flat shot scenes present us with the naked minimal of knowledge, with cinematographer Huge JCS having apparently been given no time to search out any angle for inventive aptitude. In the meantime, the sound-engineering they’ve supplied appears to largely deal with making an attempt to not have the actors’ dialogue drowned out by the cacophonous bird-song echoing via the suburbs on that gloriously sunny day.

Maybe it’s unfair to maintain evaluating this movie to others – nevertheless it actually does warrant fascinated about simply how this mission falls compared to Autumn By no means Dies. That movie used a fluffy ostrich and monkey puppet to say one thing about actual life trauma, via an absurdist lens – with clear motivations and contexts informing its jokes, nonetheless ridiculous they appeared. In distinction, Shortbread is a depressingly unimaginative masquerade of ‘actuality’ knowledgeable by a set of uninspired stereotypes, which fails to current a significant perspective on any of its characters – in a approach meaning numerous its humour falls flat.