Andrew (Erik Potempa) is an office worker with a crush on his boss’s assistant, Carla (Jocelyn DeBoer). Stuffy and stiff, the kind of personality that thinks that mocking things might make him appear personable and engaging, Andrew doesn’t really have much going for him; at least nothing that Carla might find interesting. However, when Carla finds herself in a bind without that “special coffee” her boss craves daily, Andrew makes his move to save the day.
Over Coffee is a challenging short to review, mainly in that it is competent in its look, style, direction and acting. In other words, it just is. Save for Andrew’s obnoxious co-worker David (Michael Oberholtzer), who feels like he’s doing his best impression of the “O-Face” guy from Office Space, nothing about the acting feels all that weak. You could maybe look at Andrew’s character, but if he’s supposed to be socially awkward and unimpressive… well, that works for the short. On a technical note, the audio mix could be massaged a bit more, but it’s not awful so… again, middle of the road here.
Over Coffee doesn’t overly engage or impress, though it has a nice twist (you didn’t think Andrew would get to be the hero THAT easy, did you?), and it has an air of sweetness to it that works. It just doesn’t stick with you after watching. Now, you could do a lot worse than making a competent short film, but you could also do a lot better. As far as filmmaking foundations go, filmmaker Sean Meehan has shown that he knows what he’s doing, but there is definitely room for growth.
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