Crab Cake Kid

Crab Cake Kid is a short film written by and starring the York comedian Rob Auton. It’s an incredibly well written and crafted film that is as funny as it is touching.

The film follows Auton as he narrates a story surrounding his first job at aged sixteen working as a chef. He recounts stories of drug taking, camaraderie and bullying which will be familiar to anyone with experience working in kitchens. The centrepiece of these stories is Auton as the Crab Cake Kid who has become a cult like figure due to his special recipe for making crab cakes.

The standout of this short film is certainly Auton himself. It’s evident he’s an established comedian with plenty of experience writing comedy and performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This film is not so dissimilar from seeing one of his shows at the festival or listening to him tell a comedic story in the corner of a pub and this is due to how the short film’s narration is framed.

Director Kirill Teslia alongside writer Auton, create this film quite unconventionally. Within the first 30 seconds of the film, there is a fourth wall break as Auton narrates to the audience these stories of his kitchen experience. This creates an intimate viewing experience where it feels as though Auton is directly speaking to the viewer.

As a comedian, it’s no surprise that the comedy of this film is particularly strong. From an early scene where Auton describes cling film as ‘the ghost of tin foil’ to the revelation of the secret ingredient that’s in the crab cake, viewers will find themselves laughing at many points throughout the film.

That being said, there is also an understanding that this kitchen environment isn’t all fun and games. The 90s banter often tips over into bullying especially with the head chef (Luke McQueen) who makes 16 year old Auton clean the floor in his bare feet and gives him his first gram of weed. There is a satisfying end to the chef’s tenure at the kitchen that involves an off piece of Sea Bass which is one of the highlights of the film.

The direction and editing of the film, both done by Teslia, are areas that are definitely worthy of note. The opening scene, for example, where each item that makes up the crab cake are laid out on a metal table while an intense jazz score creates tension, is something that wouldn’t look out of place in Boiling Point or The Bear.

The only small gripe I have with this film is purely a selfish one, I would like more of it. There are moments that I feel could be expanded a little further, not necessarily for a full feature length film but perhaps a few minutes extra to the 13 minute run time. The bulk of the film’s flashbacks are spent in 1996 and it would have been nice to spend more time in 1998 where Auton is a more established chef.

Altogether, Crab Cake Kid is an incredibly humorous film that is reflective of Auton’s deadpan Yorkshire humour. It’s a familiar story while being distinctive in its directorial choices and it provides its own critique on toxic kitchen environments. Crab Cake Kid is being shown at the Aesthetica Film Festival in York and it’s well worth seeing for anyone that values comedy in film.