Lunch Ladies (Short)
“Lunch Ladies” dives into every cliche we have as high schoolers about the women (mostly) who work the lunch room, feeding us relatively unappetizing food during our lunch period. The stuff we see Seretta (Donna Pieroni) and LouAnne (Mary Manofsky) feeding the kids of Melvin High School, however, looks particularly foul and unappetizing, and the kitchen it is made in would be a health inspector’s worst nightmare. The kids and faculty are disgusted by the slop the women are shuffling, and the principal delivers an ultimatum- they need to do better for “Surprise Friday,” or they’re fired. Will inspiration hit?
There are key pieces of information left out in that paragraph describing the plot of Clarissa Jacobson’s screenplay for “Lunch Ladies,” but you don’t want to give up all the juicy details of this surreal dark comedy too early. One look at the poster and you know exactly where this is going to go, but one of the things that I enjoy about how it gets there are the events that have gone unsaid above. Admittedly, the first time we see Seretta and LouAnne as they are driving in to work, the performances are a bit too broad, and they still have moments where they feel that way along the way, but they feel like genuine and authentic characters every step of the way, as we see them get excited about a once-in-a-lifetime chance to really show their stuff for someone they are obsessed with, who also inspires them to stretch themselves for “Surprise Friday.” Something that is important in a movie like this is that we empathize with the characters, even if they fall outside of our morality. We do with Seretta and LouAnne, and that’s a credit to Jacobson, director J.M. Logan and the actors that we want to see the ending they have in store for us happen. “Lunch Ladies” turns out a winning recipe.
