This film is part of Rentals

8 Minutes Idle 15 rating

Quirky British call-centre comedy about a man whose life is disrupted when he has to start living in his office.

Comedy 2012 86 mins

Director: Mark Simon Hewis

Overview

Call-centre worker Dan (Tom Hughes) abides the guiding principle of striving for an easy life. Mistakenly believing his mundane job precludes him from the world of responsibility, his worldview is shaken when his mum evicts him from the family home and he and his pet cat are forced to start living in his workplace.

He’s soon drawn into a web of complex relationships that he’d hoped to avoid, such as having to negotiate the attentions of his near-psychotic boss Alice (Montserrat Lombard) and his burgeoning relationship with co-worker Teri (Ophelia Lovibond). 8 Minute Idle is a product of the iFeatures initiative, a BBC, Creative England and BFI-backed project supporting low-budget feature filmmaking outside London. Acclaimed shorts director Mark Simon-Hewis’ spiky and original rom-com cleverly captures the insouciance and insecurity experienced daily by members of ‘generation credit crunch’.