Following a difficult break-up, a despondent woman finds solace in the simple joys of a slice of toast. This is the short film Toast.
Who doesn’t love toast? It’s warm, it’s crispy, it’s filling, and it goes well with butter, jam, and marmalade. Well, Vicky (Natalie Hughes), the main character in this micro short, loves toast, and she also loves to use the breakfast staple as a metaphor for her recent break-up.
Breaking the fourth wall and addressing the viewer, similar to how Phoebe Waller-Bridge does in her hit TV show Fleabag, Vicky explains what toast means to her and how she is using it as a comfort food after a messy and recent break-up. She tells how, like herself, her former partner also loved toast and she begins to reel off the reasons why. This is before the doorbell rings and she leaves her breakfast, and her engagement ring, on the kitchen counter before opening the front door.
Coming in at just over two minutes in length, Toast is a micro short that manages to tell a story well and fit in an abundance of quickly edited shots in such a short runtime. Thanks to the cinematography of Adam Thomas, Toast looks fantastic. Each shot is perfectly framed and perfectly lit, and the colour grade is fantastic. Directed by Lawrence Rowe, in what is his directorial debut after having worked in the locations department of some big shows and the movie Empire of Light, Toast is a very promising start for what will surely be a successful career should he continue to create such polished productions.
The aforementioned Natalie Hughes really seems like a fantastic find. She portrays Vicky with such warmth and heartbreak, that one can’t help but like her. Even though she has been around for a few years now, having starred in such productions as The Hike (which looks like a clone of The Descent) and Gandhi, My Father, Hughes, too, looks like she could go on to big things.
Toast is about to start its festival journey and, should it be shown at festivals that cater to micro shorts, we are sure it will do very well.
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