Uno Out

Uno Out shows a lot of promise with its delightfully twisted premise, but it needs a stronger sense of identity before the audience will feel comfortable going along for the ride. The most consistent issue was the sound mixing. The dialogue doesn’t sound like it’s recorded right, and I consistently had trouble understanding the conversation.

In the scene before the killings start, we get an interesting comment on the nature of competitive gaming. The film blends images of the players pouring and drinking (presumably alcoholic) beverages with them dealing out cards. There’s a clear suggestion that the players are all getting drunk from the thrill of competition. If the film were to commit to that idea, we would at least have a strong thematic backbone to guide us. As is, the film doesn’t seem to know what it’s saying. If the film wants us in on the joke from the start, we need more efficient exposition and stronger characterization.

The ritual killings of these characters affected me very little for good or for ill because my context for them was lacking right from the start. The audience simply doesn’t know anything about any of the characters except that it’s someone’s birthday. And something about one girl stealing another’s boyfriend. I don’t even remember what most of the players did to incur the wrath of our leading lady.

Another consequence of stock characterization is that the actors don’t have a lot to work with. The current cast may be qualified performers (though I’ll confess every single death scene felt unnatural and cringe-inducing), but it’s hard to say with any confidence if any of them do a worthy job at embodying their characters when the characters all feel the same. Without a lively ensemble, the cast just feels like a train of mannequins all waiting for their turn to be knocked over.

The story demands a wildly absurdist tone and aesthetic to accommodate its bizarre premise (a college student getting so mad at her friends that she literally kills them over a game of cards), but the film looks and feels like your standard home video. The filmmaking itself isn’t stylized enough to contain the outlandish story it wants to tell.

As is, the film feels like an inside joke that the audience is not in on. Underneath the layers of dark humor, there’s a flicker of human truth to the idea of someone getting so angry at her social circle that she would murder them all with a game of cards, but the film needs to give the audience more to work with. Make the characters distinct from one another and lean into the absurdity of the story visually or otherwise. And maybe do something about the mics as well.

~ Critical Review written by Zach Miller