“Table and immediately adjacent area in strong white light. Rest of stage in darkness.” This ultra-minimalist bit of stage direction — from Krapp’s Last Tape, by Samuel Beckett — could easily apply to talk-show host Charlie Rose’s somewhat spooky conversational lair.
And although, sadly, we’ll never get to watch Mr. Beckett “for the hour” with Mr. Rose, filmmaker Andrew Filippone Jr. has imagined a sidesplitting and weirdly profound three-minute vision of both men’s styles colliding. In a confrontation reminiscent of another Charlie (Kaufman) facing down his twin brother in Adaptation, this Charlie takes on his most challenging guest ever: Charlie Rose. The topic — the future of technology — is apt, considering how we found this Web gem hiding in the tall grass of YouTube’s lonelygirls and soccer highlights.
Our favorite moment: One Charlie successfully unnerves the other with a simple “Steve is not happy” — hands-down the most portentously sinister non sequitur since “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?”
 to a friend
|
the VeryShortList.com archive