Review: Crumb Catcher (2023)
Dissecting the American class system is just fine when Bernie rails against the banks or Trump assaults the D.C. swamp, but always-online armchair pundits are much more reticent to talk about their own power in the service economy in a country this wealthy. It’s a topic that seems to best lend itself to the latest Robert Reich Facebook ramble, but as Chris Skotchdopole’s debut film, Crumb Catcher, proves, transactional relationships serve as a fertile foundation for an effective and brutally funny thriller.
Shane and Leah should have never gotten married. He’s an on-the-rise writer about to release a memoir about growing up Hispanic with an alcoholic father. She’s the white liberal publishing house drone hoping to exploit his heritage so she can get credit for the next book club sensation. But when John, the irritating, overly verbose waiter from their reception, shows up at the door of their modernist honeymoon getaway with the Trojan Horse of a lost wedding cake topper, the problems the couple has long repressed runneth over. He’s here to show off the Crumb Catcher–an ineffective fine-dining gadget that allows patrons to sweep up their own mess–and he won’t release his captive audience until he and his con artist wife get what’s coming to them.
Crumb Catcher could have easily succumbed to the worst excesses of the smarmy indies clogging up the lower-tier recs of a random free streaming channel. However, Skotchdopole’s lean script and talent for tension-building position the film as more low-budget heir to 90s thrillers like The Game than the fruit of a desperate Kickstarter campaign. As the movie’s big bad, John Speredakos constantly shifts between desolation and unhinged menace, turning in what will surely be the year’s most unfairly ignored performance come awards season. What John’s doing is clearly wrong, but Shane and Leah’s sins may be just as vile. In its navigation of the dark side of getting ahead, Skotchdopole’s film reminds us we’re all complicit–especially those who hide behind the screen of high culture to pretend they’re above it all.
Crumb Catcher opens Friday at AMC Thoroughbred 20.