Writer/director Cameron A. Mitchell serves up a thoughtful, engaging short film with Dinner in Room 307, the story of a kind of out of sorts guy named Ralph (Daniel R. Murphy). 

In the film, Ralph attends a dinner party desperate to find out the secret to making his life happy. While it seems like a simple enough task, his encounter with the group's leader, Ellie (Jace Taylor), doesn't go quite as expected and while she may very well have the secret he seeks she's not giving it up easily. 

Much like Ellie, Mitchell doesn't give up his secrets easily here and Ralph's journey is quietly suspenseful as you're never quite sure where the entire story is going. While I never quite bought into Ralph's actual desperation, Murphy infuses him with a weariness that works nicely as the story evolves. 

As Ellie, Jace Taylor serves up a character who could be any number of things and much of the fun of the film is figuring out where she's going to go next. 

I'm sure not going to tell you.

Andressa Cor's lensing for the film continues Mitchell's history of shooting dark, grimy films with sort of a stark humanity going on about them. Yatzin Solano's production design carries a similar aura about it as we're never quite sure if we should be worried about Ralph's welfare or not. 

Already announced as an official selection of October's Show Low Film Festival, Dinner in Room 307 is the kind of low-budget short that for the most part makes that low budget work to its advantage. For more information on the film, visit its official website linked to in the credits. 

© Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic