Good Poker Buddies Are Hard to Find
The Fifth Takes Friendship too Far
Once a month or so, I get together with friends to play poker. Our game is usually pretty big, but we've had several games over the course of the years that were cancelled because we couldn't drum up enough people. Filling every chair is vital to a good game, and it isn't always easy to find another player. In his dark comedy The Fifth, writer and director Ryan Levin examines the difficulties of trying to integrate a new player into a weekly poker game.
Written by: Ryan A. Levin
Starring: Simon Anthony, Robert E. Beckwith, Rob G. Kahn, Sam Lloyd, and George Miserlis
Rated
(language
and graphic violence) Running time: 14 min.
FilmGuru's Rating : 9 out of 10.
The Fifth revolves around the simple premise of bringing a new person into a tight-knit group of friends. As expected, the friends all know and accept each other for their idiosyncrasies, but the new guy Brian (Rob G. Kahn) sees them in a different light.
While it may seem that the angry Jerry (Robert E. Beckwith) would be the most upsetting to this "happy" group, it is Ken (Sam Lloyd) who steals the show. He's described as the guy who "always shows up late" and has a habit of bringing his work to the table with him. If only it was that simple.
The comedy in the film comes from the discovery of Ken's line of work and how Brian reacts. More important is how the others in the game react, each of them offering Ken the support system he needs as he deals with the pressure of his new "career." The dark humor takes an otherwise normal situation, creating something that is both absurd and surreal.
In a scant 14 minutes, Levin manages to build a comedic situation and push it to hilarious heights. The well-written, tight script has a number of wonderful moments, such as a scene where Ken (who leaves to get some towels to clean up a bloody mess) pauses to say "Don't look at my cards." The most clever moments are when the ordinary exists beside the horrific, like some kind of suburban nightmare.
Shot on HD Video, The Fifth is Levin's first foray into directing. He has co-written an animated short, Dante, and has written for the television show Scrubs. Several of the cast members of The Fifth also have ties to Scrubs, most notably Lloyd who plays the hapless lawyer Ted Buckland.
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