User Reviews

"A Cohort of Guests" is an American live action short film from 2019, so this one has its fifth anniversary this year and it runs for a quarter of an hour. The director is Todd Sandler, apparently not related to Adam, and you find him usually in the editing department of films, also not only feature films, but even some Hollywood blockbusters he has worked on in the past. He also wrote the screenplay together with Alexa Gilker, who is not inexperienced when it comes to short film writing. Anyway, I must admit that I was not familiar really with any of the cast members here, but I see that many of them worked already (together) on the long-running television show "Grey's Anatomy", so if you know this one well, then definitely a few faces will be familiar to you here. If not (like myself) and you still watch a lot of American television, it can still be the case. One cast member acted for a really long time on "Fringe" for example and almost everybody has their bodies of work packed with shows where they appeared in a single episode or two or three. Brandon Scott is probably the more known from the two men we see early on in the film, but Jake Borelli very likely changes this. As for the females, I thought Jasika Nicole, whose character also plays a crucial role here towards the end, was a bit of a looker, but the real stunner is definitely Danielle Savre.

The first ten minutes of the film are basically about a group of friends meeting and most of them do not live really close to each other, so two of the couples also do not know each other in person yet. Apparently, one of the three couples is lesbian, but the film is never about that, so it should not be called an LBGT film, which of course happens more often than it should if the film is not one bit about that. But that is another story. So yeah, the first two thirds of the film are about the characters just talking to each other, we find out a little bit about their thought processes, how they (maybe not) like each other and how almost everybody is wearing an invisible mask here. Hopefully not also when they interact only with their significant others. I will not go into detail about what they are mentioning exactly, but it is about what a group of bears is called or also in one of the more insightful moments we understand that one character has made bad experiences with police detectives apparently. The last third of the film is then when things get spicy. A man with a gun shows up and spoils the party, asks everybody for their money and the two men are not really showing the best reaction there to deescalate the situation. It is one woman who pretty much welcomes him as a guest, even if I must admit that for whatever reason I thought there could be poison in the bottle, but obviously this was not the case. The intruder shows his gratefulness by putting the glass back in the end and calming down a lot as he drinks the wine that is apparently really delicious. Borelli's face expression after taking the first sip was maybe the best-acted moment from the film. This was also when the baby phone or whatever you call it went off and we as well as the visitor understand there is a baby involved, so this could have turned into a lot more like a kidnapping even, but at that point he was already in a state where he did not want to hurt anybody and the baby being inside as a symbol of innocence in a way kept him from going inside and checking for money and valuables there.

All in all, it was a film where you could say it just depicted life as it happens, but also at the same time this does not happen all the time at all, so it was also the exact same opposite, but it shows how situations like those can be solved with the right approach. A heartfelt one or at least one that helps in deescalating the situation. Had the criminal refused the drink, nothing bad would have happened either, so it was not a win-loss scenario there. Just a friendly offer. Overall, given the tone and message of the film, I would say it fits in nicely somehow in the Grey's Anatomy universe. For me it was still a close call if I can give the film a thumbs-up or if it is more of a thumbs-down, but in the end I will be generous and go for the former. Worth checking out and almost a must-see for fans of "Grey's Anatomy". Worth watching. There's way worse ways out there to spend 15 minutes. Now those were a lot of w-words. If you really went to see it, then I suggest you go to the (western) world's biggest video website where writer and director Sandler himself uploaded the film from his account and a six-digit amount of people has seen it already since then. If you add up to this number, you are not doing anything wrong. Especially at this running time. But close the window quickly the moment the closing credits start rolling in because the quote you read there is definitely a bit on the pretentious side and should have been left out. Nonetheless I wonder if we will hear (more) from Sandler in the future in terms of being the man in charge or if he stays with editing and perhaps also wins some big awards there at some point. Time will tell.