A Man Says Good-bye to His Dying Dad in a Shrek Costume – Vulture

A children’s birthday-party entertainer named Russell is dressed for one of his gigs as the animated character Shrek when he receives a call from his sister, Ally, telling him that his estranged father is on his deathbed and he needs to rush over immediately or risk missing his chance to say good-bye. He looks down at his elaborate costume, complete with convoluted prosthetics and green makeup, and asks, “Do you mean like right now?” It’s a perfect premise for a comedy sketch, if not the most meaty. One could imagine a version of it on the now-defunct platform Vine, where it cuts off right after Russell delivers this line. But that’s not the route filmmaker Matt Kazman took with it. In his new short film, Donkey, a Vimeo staff pick, he plays out this scenario over a winding 15-minute journey, beginning with Russell driving to his gig listening to self-help affirmations, to Russell being rejected from the party he was supposed to work for not effectively capturing Shrek’s likeness, to the aforementioned phone call, to a distraught Russell arriving at the hospital to see his father but being forced to continuously field questions about his costume, which no one seems
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