Toasters (Estelle Piper) is an improv acting teacher who writes songs. Moose (Tom Shaw) plays around with a portable keyboard in between house painting jobs. Together they are Toasters ‘n’ Moose, a musical duo who have been playing together off and on for 30 years. Their manager, Don Allen (Tm Connolly) has booked them for a reunion tour to remember. Well, really he’s found a few open mic events for them to play and is faking the rest by having them busk at bus depots and on sidewalks. He ferries them around Northern California in his SUV, along with his very unfortunate niece Natalie (Anna Catherine).
Chickens in the Shadows is a 2010 mockumentary comedy written and directed by Vincent Gargiulo. At one hour and one minute, it’s long for a short subject but much shorter than most feature films. Unless you’re an avid viewer of short films you probably don’t know any of the cast. While the film was little seen beyond a few festivals when it was first released, it’s developed a cult following since. It got another boost in 2022 when the song “Taste the Biscuit” went viral on TikTok, the visuals redone by the “Chrome Lady” filter.
Trope the biscuit!:
- Bittersweet Ending: The tour is kind of a bust and Toasters bails early. A few months later, though, she and Moose reconnect and seem to have healthier expectations for their career.
- Butt-Monkey: Natalie gets dragged along by her indifferent uncle and has to room with Toasters—who makes hating children a big part of her identity—and schleps the band’s equipment for free (not counting the stuffed animal she takes the liberty of buying with tip money.) Of the three adults, only Moose seems to like her, at least enough to take her to the beach.
- Child Hater: Toasters, who seems to have a lot of issues, lashes out at Natalie with no provocation.
- Crippling Overspecialization: After Toasters takes off, Moose gets drafted into (barely) playing keyboard bass with a Chopin cover band. The other keyboardist—the only one playing for most of their set—suggests that they broaden out to Mozart and Mendelssohn, but he gets shouted down.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: A rare emotional outburst when Moose is sitting on a park bench and a passerby offers to share her sandwich with him. He throws it at her and screams, “I’m not homeless!”
- Food Songs Are Funny: “Taste the Biscuit”, of course. At times it plays with being some kind of raunchy Double Entendre, but then it doubles down on just being about food, with hilarious results.
- Mockumentary: Presented in documentary format, with cheap titles and fly-on-the-wall dialogue. It’s not entirely clear who’s filming, but it seems hasty enough for Don to be doing double duty and sometimes just letting the camera go.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: A gig playing on the sidewalk under a highway overpass with no audience is the last straw for Toasters, who excuses herself and buses it back to the hotel, then goes back home.
- Stylistic Suck: All over the place. Toasters and Moose themselves show signs of having talent individually and share a quirky rapport onstage, and some listeners do seem to enjoy their act. Other acts at their gigs, maybe less so. And the 1994 clip Don submitted to America's Got Talent is a total unfocused mess.
- Too Much Information: A 60s-themed duo at one of the events overshare about their life as a couple and show a clear interest in wanting to swing.
- Word Salad Title:
- You might be able to tease out a metaphor, but the film bears no literal connection to chickens or shadows.
- Possibly lampshaded. Near the end Toasters tells Moose that she’s been in a short film about an aging lap dancer called “The Old LA Zoo.” She even says, “The title has nothing to do with the movie, though.”
