Inspired by a true story, “Buckets” is about Kamel, a bucket-drumming street performer in Los Angeles. Kamel plays buckets on Hollywood Blvd, hustling for money, lives in his car and his girlfriend, Tamarine, is pregnant and in need of support. Kamel’s been saving up his cash to move into an apartment with Tamarine at the end of the week, when he gets carjacked and all his money gets stolen (and then, on top of that, his car gets towed). With the fear of Tamarine leaving him, Kamel has to decide whether to strike a deal with a local drug dealer to get his money back, or find some other way.
Of course, one could always ask why Kamel didn’t get a job the minute he heard his girlfriend was pregnant as opposed to, you know, playing buckets all day (which I’m sure pays well, but can’t even remotely be consistent enough to raise a family on). To that end, my sympathy for the character is less than it probably could’ve or should’ve been.
Arguments with the base premise aside, the short is well-acted and put together, and the ending definitely rings true to a character as committed to his music as Kamel winds up being.
