The Coffee Table (Spanish: La mesita del comedor, lit. 'The dining room's small Table') is a 2022 Spanish black comedy film directed by Caye Casas and written by Casas and Cristina Borobia which stars David Pareja and Estefanía de los Santos.

Plot

Jesús Casas and María go to a furniture store with their newborn son, Cayetano ('Cayetanín'), in the hopes of buying a Coffee Table. The salesman, also claiming to be named Cayetano, offers them an expensive but supposedly high-quality Table which María refuses to buy, claiming that the salesman's promise of unbreakable glass is false. Jesús purchases the tacky Table nonetheless, as he complains that María has not allowed him to choose anything. Jesús starts building the Table in the apartment he inherited from his grandmother. He is visited by his upstairs neighbor, a 13-year-old girl named Ruth who continuously threatens to frame Jesús for pedophilia as he rebuffs her advances. Jesús notices a screw is missing from the Table and calls the salesman to ask for another one; in the meantime, he places the glass pane right-side-up. María leaves to buy groceries and wine in preparation for the visit of Jesús's brother Carlos and his new partner Cristina, leaving Jesús alone with Cayetanín for the first time. Jesús tries to get Cayetanín to stop crying. In the process, the glass pane, despite the salesman's promise, breaks and decapitates Cayetanín, also injuring Jesús. In shock, Jesús sits still while staring at the corpse before beginning to clean up the blood in the apartment; he places his son's headless body in his crib, but is too scared to pick up the severed head, which is underneath a chair. He borrows bleach from Ruth, who is suspicious. The salesman arrives at Jesús's apartment door with the missing screw and tries to arrange a date with him. Jesús is still in shock when María comes home, but repeatedly manages to prevent her from coming near their son's room. María's mood improves when Jesús tells her about the Table's glass pane being broken on the first day after the purchase, while he conceals Cayetanín's death from her. The two get ready for Carlos and Cristina, and during dinner with them, Jesús is very erratic and does not answer questions. Cristina reveals that she is pregnant with a girl, and Carlos wants his daughter to be friends with her cousin Cayetanín. Jesús ends up telling them that he could not care less about his brother getting an 18-year-old girl pregnant, spoiling the mood of María and the guests. Jesús leaves the dining room to record a suicide note for María in the bathroom, which Carlos overhears. As Jesús brings Carlos into Cayetanín's room and shows him the corpse, they plan to tell María the truth, and as they head out, Ruth sneaks into the apartment with her dog, telling María that Jesús kissed her in the elevator. As the atmosphere in the dining room grows increasingly tense, the dog sniffs out Cayetanín's severed head, which causes Jesús to go catatonic, Cristina to vomit, and Ruth to start screaming. María takes the baby's head in her hands and opens the door to the balcony. Some time later, police officers gather outside the apartment discussing the case, which involves a dead couple and their decapitated baby. Carlos sits catatonic in a police car, reportedly only able to utter the phrase la mesita del comedor ('the Coffee Table') according to one of the agents.

Cast

Production

The film was produced by La Charito Films alongside Alhena Production and Apocalipsis Producciones. It was shot in Terrassa. The helmer pitched his film as "an uncomfortable, politically incorrect film with extremely black humor and a brutal tragedy".

Release

The film was presented in the 'Rebels with a Cause' slate of the 2022 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF). It also made it to the slate of the 2023 Fantaspoa for its Latin-American premiere, and to the 2023 Fantastic Fest lineup for its North-American premiere. MGM Premium boarded rights to the film. Cinephobia Releasing picked up North American rights to the film. Following the invisible theatrical run in Spain, with the film being self-distributed by Casas in few screens, The Coffee Table earned some buzz in the country after Stephen King recommended the film and Filmin then proceeded to pick up streaming rights.

Reception

According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, The Coffee Table has a 88% approval rating based on 33 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 7.8/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Rafael Motamayor of /Film gave the film a 10 out of 10 rating deeming it to be "one of the bleakest, meanest, most unbearably cruel movies you could ever see". Stephen King praised the film, describing it as "horrible and also horribly funny. Think the Coen Brothers' darkest dream".

= Top ten lists

= The film also appeared on a number of critics' top ten lists of the best Spanish films of 2023: 10th — El Mundo (Luis Martínez)

Accolades

See also

List of Spanish films of 2023

References

External links

The Coffee Table at IMDb The Coffee Table at Rotten Tomatoes The Coffee Table at Metacritic