Julien Neaves, Caribbean Head Writer
We have a brand new short from the Trinidad and Tobago production house of GT Network though this one is much more grounded than the Sci Fi and superhero fare of their Ville Ventures Universe. Uppers stars Isa “Sapphire” Gervais as Sade, a young woman waiting on a lonely street at night to be picked up by her boyfriend. While waiting she has an encounter with an eccentric homeless man (Vechenko Noel) and things take an odd turn. It is (deep breath) written, directed, produced, casted, edited, costume designed, and sound co-done by Andrew Joseph (exhale).
There are things to enjoy with Uppers. Noel as the quirky Homeless Man is an energetic, entertaining and humorous character. The setup is an interesting one. And the music by Patrick A. (xethrocc) is pleasing to the ears. And there are a couple of interesting twists to the plot that spices up proceedings.
But the short film does have its share of flaws. Gervais is decent as Sade but at times her performance descends into melodrama and the character feels less than believable. The plot also starts off well as a slice-of-life drama but makes an eventual turn into public service announcement territory. This unfortunately weakens the message about the addiction by delivering it with all the subtlety of a hammer to the face. I believe a show-don’t-tell approach would have been far more effective.
Editor Jules’ Score: 5.5 out of 10
You can watch Uppers for yourself by clicking here. And you can check out more TT 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.