Film Journal 2024: The Coffee Table
Directed by Caye Casas
A tight, taught horror indie that uses a simple premise (a couple with a new baby purchases a new coffee table that becomes the center piece of their home) to depict a gradual but persistent unraveling of their once mundane lives.
The Director uses a mix of visual filmmaking and character work to achieve a real sense of dread, and features some genuinely memorable sequences. It struggles a bit to land some of its metaphorical or allegorical possibilities, and it could have been better served by trading some of the less fleshed out plot pieces (there is one particular thread that ultimately proves to contribute little to the overall end effect) for a stronger thematic focus, but what it does well it does very well.
The Stories of my Life 