{"id":32466,"date":"2024-12-02T17:49:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T22:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/?p=32466"},"modified":"2025-08-01T22:15:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T02:15:12","slug":"the-coffee-table-film-review-la-mesita-del-comedor-2024-greggwmorris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/the-coffee-table-film-review-la-mesita-del-comedor-2024-greggwmorris\/","title":{"rendered":"<small><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Film Review<\/span><\/strong><\/small><br>THE COFFEE TABLE  aka LA MESITA DEL COMEDOR (<\/small>In Spanish with English subtitles) \u2013 An Enigmatic Tour de Force"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-32474\" src=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/TheCoffeeTable.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"562\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/TheCoffeeTable.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/TheCoffeeTable-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/TheCoffeeTable-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/TheCoffeeTable-560x315.jpg 560w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/TheCoffeeTable-260x146.jpg 260w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/TheCoffeeTable-160x90.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-32603\" src=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/coffeetable-logo2024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"545\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/coffeetable-logo2024.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/coffeetable-logo2024-300x164.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/coffeetable-logo2024-768x419.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/coffeetable-logo2024-560x305.jpg 560w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/coffeetable-logo2024-260x142.jpg 260w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/coffeetable-logo2024-160x87.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Director Caye Casas said in an interview with RicePieces.com, a British publication, that he made his tour de force because he wanted to explore really scary things in his life that resulted from incredible bad luck, diabolical cruelty and the possibility of unfathomable terrible things happening in the future. The result is a stunner, fiendish and grim, dynamic in scope, as well as grisly and horrific \u2013 yet, there are no scenes of gratuitous gore nor gratuitous violence. This meticulously made film packs an incredible visceral punch. And it ain&#8217;t funny.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>A Friendly Disclaimer Ever There Was One<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Audiences, especially patrons of <em>the WORD,<\/em> should be aware of publicity, marketing, promoting, advertising quips and the like, purporting that comedy permeates THE COFFEE TABLE. Saying or even alluding that there is perfuse comedy in the film is like saying that the the bible of the American Psychiatric Association, known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychiatry.org\/psychiatrists\/practice\/dsm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders aka DSM-F-TR,<\/a> is a great source and archive for comedy and uplifting ideas about the nature of people&#8217;s eccentricities. Nevertheless, this reviewer-writer respects the findings, opinions, reviews of other publications even though he strongly disagrees with them.<\/p>\n<p>A movie made with the panache and derring-do of Casas&#8217; cinematic beast can tempt one to regard THE COFFEE TABLE as a Rod-Serling-Made-Twilight-Zone-Type-Movie running on steroids of a cosmic nature from another dimension of time and space as yet to be imagined.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Coffee Table Trailer\" width=\"860\" height=\"484\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v4jE5k5Wmzc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_32645\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32645\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-32645\" src=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/pubhim-THE-COFFEE-TABLE--150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-32645\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dad, played by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=David_Pareja&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1\">David Pareja<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>A <em>WORD<\/em> Synopsis of Sorts<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Jes\u00fas Casas, played smartly by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=David_Pareja&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1\">David Pareja<\/a>, and Mar\u00eda, played smartly by Estefania de los Santos, visit a furniture store with their newborn baby boy, Cayetano, cuddled by his mom, to buy a coffee table.<\/p>\n<p>The store salesman, played smartly by Eduardo Antu\u00f1a, goes into his sales pitch routine to get them to buy an expensive, supposedly high-quality coffee table with frames made of fake gold, and, in his sales pitch lauding the table, and him speaking with a forked tongue manipulative but not particularly deceitful, says that the table is unbreakable.<\/p>\n<p>Jes\u00fas is ready to buy the table, not Mar\u00eda who sneers profanely at the salesman for his prevarication and she pulls no punches, calling him a dickhead.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_32479\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32479\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-32479\" src=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pub-sheTHE-COFFEE-TABLE-Still4-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-32479\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mar\u00eda, played by Estefania de los Santos<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>[In the course of heated back-and-forth bickering and wrangling, the audience learns that each character has a motive reflecting psychological matters that influence their opinions. This is a marvelous scene that tips off the savvy in the audience to be on alert for more crafty, sagacious plot devices that enhance understanding of and appreciation of this film\u2019s inimitable gravitas.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Eventually, however, the assembly package for the table is purchased and the plan is for Jes\u00fas to assemble the table in their apartment. As the couple enters the apartment building, they bump into one of their neighbors and her 13-year-old daughter, Ruth. The daughter \u2013 precociously seductive and definitely no ing\u00e9nue \u2013 has been sexually coming on to Jes\u00fas who has respectfully \u2013 and wisely \u2013 rebuffed her for the obvious reasons.<\/p>\n<p>His rejections, nevertheless, fuel Ruth\u2019s ruthless plan to falsely frame himfor coming on to her if he doesn&#8217;t do what she wants which is more than intimating what she wants him to do. <em>{Again, another of the filmmakers crafty, sagacious plot devises.}<\/em><\/p>\n<p>J&amp;M eventually enter their apartment but Mar\u00eda leaves to shop for groceries and wine in to prepare dinner for a visit by Jes\u00fas&#8217; brother Carlos and his new significant other, Cristina (many years his younger). Jes\u00fas is subsequently left alone with baby Cayetano, for the first time. He, affectionately and sincerely, tries to get the squalling young one to stop crying and resorts to very affectionate cooing.<\/p>\n<p>In the moment, the glass pane of the supposedly unbreakable coffee table breaks \u2013 and glass shards decapitate baby Cayetano. Jes\u00fas, freaks out beyond belief yet struggles mightily to summon the emotional strength to come to terms with the accident that was beyond his control. He attempts to cleaning up the blood mess in the apartment; he places the headless body of his son in his crib but is too scared to pick up the severed head\u00a0 which rolled underneath a chair. Will he ever?<\/p>\n<p>What this reviewer-writer described immediately above begs the question: WHAT WOULD AUDIENCE MEMBERS DO IF THEY WERE IN A SIMILAR SITUATION?<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Etcetera \u2026 And so on \u2026 And so forth \u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_32477\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32477\" class=\"size-full wp-image-32477\" src=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pub-The_Coffee_Table_efdbe7cdfd-1536x864-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pub-The_Coffee_Table_efdbe7cdfd-1536x864-1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pub-The_Coffee_Table_efdbe7cdfd-1536x864-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pub-The_Coffee_Table_efdbe7cdfd-1536x864-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pub-The_Coffee_Table_efdbe7cdfd-1536x864-1-560x315.jpg 560w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pub-The_Coffee_Table_efdbe7cdfd-1536x864-1-260x146.jpg 260w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pub-The_Coffee_Table_efdbe7cdfd-1536x864-1-160x90.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-32477\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The furniture store<\/p><\/div>\n<hr align=\"center\" noshade=\"noshade\" size=\"2\" width=\"70%\" \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"LA MESITA DEL COMEDOR | TRAILER ESPA\u00d1OL | 1 Diciembre CINE\" width=\"860\" height=\"484\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aF2EavUTuAw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7155\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7155\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-7155\" src=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/gwm-700x700-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/gwm-700x700-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/gwm-700x700-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/gwm-700x700-560x560.jpg 560w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/gwm-700x700-260x260.jpg 260w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/gwm-700x700-160x160.jpg 160w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/gwm-700x700.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7155\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Publisher, Editor Gregg W. Morris<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A tour de force by a director who said he wanted to explore really scary things in his life that resulted from incredible bad luck, diabolical cruelty and the possibility of unfathomable terrible things happening in the future. Uh oh! \u2013 Article by  Gregg W. Morris<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/the-coffee-table-film-review-la-mesita-del-comedor-2024-greggwmorris\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":32603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-cuny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32466"}],"version-history":[{"count":193,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32670,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32466\/revisions\/32670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}