Midlands Review of Wrong Way Up
midlandsmovies • May 17, 2021
Wrong Way Up
Directed by James Foster
2021
Jamfozz Productions
Filmed in Lincoln, Wrong Way Up is a new short from James Foster who first entered the Midlands film scene with his previous project Back in My Day.
This new 10-minute comedy follows a young man called Matt (Ryan Thomson) who is introduced as he awakes in his dressing gown to receive of a package from a delivery woman.
Opening the parcel, it’s not the contents inside that ultimately intrigue Matt but the box itself. We then cut to an intruder attempting to burgle an apartment at night but standing in his way is a new kind of “superhero” who is prepared to stand up for what is right.
In this instance, it’s simply our man Matt wearing a homemade suit of cardboard. Think the cheapest cosplay Iron Man costume – one that isn’t even painted either.
As expected, the brown boxes provide next-to-no protection and he’s easily beaten. But whilst asleep we see a bolt of lightning hitting the cardboard helmet which gives it some extra-dimensional powers.
Matt now has the ability to create more boxes from thin air – and although when he first begins to fire them, it’s more of an inconvenience than anything – there’s soon more serious repercussions in horrific hand-slicing and body “insertions”.
Wrong Way Up has a fun start and simple premise and given its short time, gets over a lot of information, gags and some entertaining story beats in quick succession.
And it plays excellently on superhero origin tropes – we see the new suit, the early days as the protagonist learns to control their powers and their first crime-fighting exploits. Matt has the ‘Clark Kent’ glasses as well and as always it’s this alter ego that’s most vulnerable.
But as the burglar from earlier arrives back at his flat, he’s faced with a serious threat before the delivery woman (Amy Coull as a Mary-Jane-style ‘Suzie’) returns to his “palace” and he makes her a hot drink still half dressed in his box-y outfit.
And as she browses around his home, the now empty boxes are full of his surprising “mementos” from his crime-protection spree.
Wrong Way Up is an entertaining short with plenty going in its favour from its strong central idea to its well set up visual jokes. Showcasing a kind of “Crap-tain Amazon”, it has echoes of the feature film Dave Makes a Maze where cardboard boxes set up a world of fantasy and make-believe.
And with a flash of magic, a dash of wonder and some marvellous humour, Wrong Way Up director James Foster has delivered a super short about a low-cost hero with plenty of top-class laughs.
Michael Sales
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