Five Minutes

The mark of a comedy is the six-laugh rule. For a short, if it gets two laughs, I think it's done its job. "Five Minutes" has wonderful performances from Rob Benedict and Bre Blair, but the material veers more toward cringe than proper comedy.

Cringe comedy is the most subjective form of an already subjective mode of storytelling. It plays directly off our personal experiences. Anyone can watch Buster Keaton and get the jokes, but a significant chunk of people who might watch "Bridesmaids" or any Judd Apatow production won't laugh because they lack the experience to relate to the awkward situations. This is the central issue of "Five Minutes" -- I know the short is comedic, but it didn't make me laugh.

Justine Bateman's short truly looks good, and she gets good performances from her cast. But I'm not a parent -- the material doesn't do it for me. I understand WHY someone might think the film is funny, but to me, it isn't. I appreciate it more for its subtext about sensitivity and modern attitudes toward censorship, and most of all for its indictment of adults who don't know how to listen.

I've been waiting to watch this short for such a long time! definitely lived up to my expectations! couldn't stop laughing

This short film is set in a modern school parents' evening, where couples breakoff and practicing talking then listening with others in the group. Tom is visibly distracted by the whole thing, and while others share personal details, he decides to do something different.

There is a lot of The Office in here, particularly the UK version, because it is cringe but with a flawed person at its core - so we feel awful for the situation, hate him, but at the same time understand him as a person and feel a bit for that. I've seen some suggest that the lead character here is brave for not following the touchy-feely norm of the room, but personally I took him to be unable to do so. He is detached from the group from the very start, and is essentially rolling his eyes as people say personal and heartfelt things out loud. When his turn comes and he plays a game with it, it is funny in the moment, and cringe-inducing to see the consequences, but I enjoyed knowing that it came from a real place and it did inform on his character. So rather than cheer him for his bravery, or hate him for his mockery, I felt for him and the mess he created - all of it being funny at the same time. Its not quite David Brent at his finest, but it is of that ilk.

As the parent of two Montessori children, I can tell you that this mirrors almost every parent's contribution to exercises like the one in this short.

Instead of spending a lot of time reading some philosophical review, just go watch it on Prime Video. It's 10 minutes long.