The Case
Upressplay, a Chicago based online entertainment endeavor, was founded by
Matthew M. Jones to bolster the efforts of both independent and established
filmmakers and artists. Moving beyond a mere repository for content, the site
has a stated purpose to provide networking opportunities, portfolio help, and
resume building while creating an atmosphere and community based on celebrating
the outsider auteur. Over the years, the site has seen incredible growth and a
lot of interest from the industry. More than an iFilms or a You Tube, there is a
real push to appear professional, to have Upressplay become the premiere place
for unheralded talent to find a forum—and eventually financial
payoff—for their efforts. As part of this approach, the collective is
starting to release several of its participants' films on DVD.
Reviewed elsewhere on the site, Volume 1 clearly indicated that the
level of talent onboard had a ways to go to match the mandates of the company.
Thankfully, Volume 2 is much better. Instead of obvious amateur antics,
these short films strive for realism, authenticity, and complexity. Let's begin
with:
• Two Days in Limbo (29 minutes)
Score: 78
A
young medic meets up with a war-weary company during the last days of World War
II. Epic in its ideas but limited in its production scope, Two Days in
Limbo is a fairly effective effort. While rural Illinois looks nothing like
the battlefields of Europe, director Daniel J. Pico makes the most of the
terrain. There is a real war-torn feel to the production, a true sense of being
on the brink of death at any given moment. In addition, the narrative structure
is such that we constantly connect with the characters. Sadly, where this film
comes up short is in overall thematic resonance. Basically, Two Days in
Limbo tells a tale we've seen a million times before. To rely on cliché
to make the point, according to this film, war is Hell, making otherwise sane
individuals act like mindless murderers. Had he given us something original
rather than the standard story of men facing their own internal darkness, Limbo would be a much better movie. As it stands,
it is a decent attempt at a subject that is much deeper.
• Roscoe Village—"Episode 1: Retreadamon"
(22 minutes)
Score: 55
A group of young adults discuss football,
friendship and urine in this serio-comic sitcom. Take an episode of
Friends, remove all the wit and professionalism, add incessant chatter
about piss and the Detroit Lions, and pour it into a pathetic attempt at a
Rashamon-style narrative and you have the basic gist of Roscoe
Village. This aggravating ensemble piece, an attempt at casting the current
generation of post-college adults into an ironic commentary on reality, is
difficult to endure. The filmmakers fail to recognize the difference between
characteristics and characterization. The entire cast feels made up of
individual quirks, idiosyncrasies and eccentricities that never come together as
a portrait of a person. Instead of letting such personality peculiarities derive
naturally from the performance, the creative forces behind this flop simply
impose personas onto their actors. The result is aggravating and uninteresting.
When you're relying on pee to carry your comedy, you know you're devoid of real
humor or wit.
• Back to Reality (8 minutes)
Score: 78
A
brash homeboy with a penchant for inappropriate anger won't stop bugging his
ex-girlfriend. Daniel J. Pico is back again, this time delivering a serio-comic
slice of urban angst as our dumped-on dude tries to get over his one-time lover.
The dialogue is crisp and concrete, the monochrome design of the compositions
clever and arty. The actors do a wonderful job of creating recognizable types,
while the narrative breezes by with barely a stumble. Why the low score, you
ask? Well, at eight minutes, this is a minor effort at best. We sense the story
is skimming over the surface of this relationship and long to learn the truth
behind the troubles. Also, the nature of the conflict is rather formulaic: goony
guy can't let go, while good-hearted honey can't find the proper words to sever
their ties. This leads to a frustrating sense of stasis, a cinematic situation
that seems to constantly repeat itself. Pico has some excellent material here.
Fleshed out, it would make a fine film. As a short, however, it's a bit too
minor to matter.
• Solider (10 minutes)
Score: 74
Slam poetry
as war protest
Perhaps the first example of a slam poetry music video,
Soldier is solid, if uninvolving. David Bianchi may be a wonderful
artist, but his is lesser verse at best. The metaphors are painfully obvious and
the word choice runs from revelatory to incredibly immature. When you see slam
poets delivering their material, the oral and aural aspects meld together to
create a kind of sonic spaciness. You fall into their words and wait for the
next volley to strike. Here, Bianchi can't deliver the literary knockout punch,
and no amount of cinematic stylization (by the ever-present Mr. Pico) can save
its shortcomings. The use of blood begs the symbolism in the sonnet, and
overall, the material appears arrogant and humorless. True, there is nothing
really fun about battle, but we expect more from this urban genre than obvious
opinions. Such settled views are all that Soldier has to offer.
• Terrorvision (8
minutes)
Score: 70
The War on Terror meets Cheaters in this
semi-serious spoof of reality television. Here's an interesting idea, badly
bungled in the execution. Using the current war-on-terror tactics to get
cheating spouses to 'fess up may seem like a novel idea, but with actual reality
shows doing more or less the same thing (read: scaring people into confession)
there is nothing really unique about this piece. Had the filmmakers found a way
to deliver a more devastating social commentary, removed the smarmy ending, and
kept everything as deadly serious as the first five minutes, we might have been
able to forgive the forced humor in the finale. The acting is effective, the
camera work clever and creative. Still, it doesn't add up to anything serious or
satiric. This is a major missed opportunity, one that underscores Upressplay's
amateur status.
• Marazene—"Execute" (5 minutes)
Score:
25
Ever wonder what it would be like if Marilyn Manson and Korn had
quadruplets? Marazene makes Slipknot look like Led Zeppelin. Their music is a
mindless drone. They dress like a leather man's worst nightmare and play in a
head-swaying, dreads-dangling manner that makes for a dull, derivative
performance piece. The narrative inserts (involving a man with magical goggles)
are pointless and the whole effort reeks of unsigned act failure. Nothing here
is worth enduring, unless you like to see skinny idiots in cataract contact lens
spouting to the Devil.
• Roni vs. Lincoln (9 minutes)
Score: 84
A
couple of crazy mobster-wannabes take on the assignment of whacking the
reanimated corpse of Abraham Lincoln. Hi-jinx ensue. The best short film here is
actually part of the bonus features, but it deserves to be mentioned with the
rest of the ensemble. Using the old-fashioned idea of Keystone Kops comedy and
updating it with post-modern references to mobster and zombies works incredibly
well for the creative team behind this effort. The combination of satire and
slapstick is wonderful, and even the obvious gags (a character named Freddy No
Pants has—you guessed it—no pants!) are playful and fun. With a
little more technical tweaking here and there (and maybe another pass through
the word processor), we'd have a mini-masterpiece on our hands. Instead, this is
an original and inventive effort from individuals who understand both comedy and
classic film.
It is important to note that Jack-of-all-cinematic-trades Daniel J. Pico
directs four of the entries here (Limbo, Roscoe Village,
Reality, and Soldier) and his imprint really improves Volume
2. Granted, this presentation is still far away from something like the Full
Frame Documentary Film Festival, but the improvement over the initial offering
is impressive. Pico understands the camera and uses it to his advantage. The
homemade movie ideal of point and shoot is nowhere to be found here and even in
efforts like the retarded Roscoe Village, there is a real desire to be
cinematic as well as skillful. Even when mired by poor scripting or
performances, these shorts still look like mini-movies, not some incompetent
camcorder crap. The music video, on the other hand, is nothing more than an
example of style over substance (and in this case, there is a dearth of both
present). Even from a technical perspective, there is not much to praise here.
The transfer is all faux letterboxing with several digital defects. Grain,
flaring and bleeding all make appearances on these non-anamorphic entities. The
Dolby Digital Stereo is also poorly presented. The menu music is so loud it
almost blows out the speakers, while the camcorder conceits used in the
recording of dialogue of each film means we miss some of the conversations.
About the only place this disc shines is in the bonus feature category. Each
film gets its own special section, and its own selection of added content. For
Two Days in Limbo, the extras include a trailer, a serious stab at an
informative audio commentary, a chance to review the songs on the soundtrack, a
gallery, cast and crew bios, a selection of festivals and awards, and an
insightful behind-the-scenes featurette. Roscoe Village offers another
overview of its soundtrack, more cast and crew bios, an image gallery, and a
selection of trailers. Back to Reality, Solider, and
Terrorvision collect some brief bios as well as a gallery, while the
music video and Roni vs. Lincoln have nothing in the way of supplemental
material. Even the DVD itself has some additional features, including trailers
and some concert clips from the group Audiobon.
While it's important to support the efforts of independent filmmakers, it is
also clear that easily available technology has made every schmoe with an idea
think he or she is the next unheralded amateur auteur. Yet as this second volume
of releases indicates, a few of the artists participating in Upressplay's
creative commune have a real future in filmmaking. The rest should perhaps
consider keeping their day jobs.
