Julien Neaves, Caribbean Head Writer
Disclaimer: The film being reviewed features scenes of domestic violence which may be triggering for some viewers. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence do call the domestic violence hotline in your area.
If you are reading this on August 6 then it is Jamaican Independence Day! Happy Independence to all my yardies and much love to the land of one love. I am joining in the celebration with a review of 2021 Jamaican short film Rough Times directed by entertainer Andrew Trabass, simply known as “Trabass.”
I chose the film randomly from YouTube because it has an impressive 142,000 views and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. The plot is simple — an unemployed Jamaican man named Glen living with his wife/girlfriend somewhere in the US is rejected at a job interview. Pressure from mounting bills leads to tension and violence between the couple and life-changing news results in Glen making a desperate decision.
For a short film on YouTube the acting here is quite impressive. The leads Rolleysoeasy and Delly Fever (their stage names and IG handles) are believable in their roles and really pull you into the story. Glen is the protagonist and while some of the things he does are terrible, one can understand why he does them. At the end he is a flawed, tragic character. The plot is a relatively straightforward one but delivers a couple of twists to shake things up. My only nitpicks are there are some audio issues, with the dialogue being too low and the music being too loud at some points, and some of the camera work is blurry. And the majority of the dialogue is in Jamaican patois without any subtitles, but the story is simple enough for anyone to follow along.
So yeah, Rough Times was a great watch and a good way to spend ten minutes.
Editor’s Score: 8 out of 10
You can watch the film for yourself by clicking here. And you can check out more Jamaican short film content below:
Julien “Editor Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by the Cryptkeeper, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like “13 flavours of awesome sauce”. Read more.