Detention

A quirky and fun movie. A great concept well executed. Good stuff.

A fun, playful film with a sweet ending. Couple of things I really dug: -that shot with the teacher in the foreground and Harper balanced on the roof behind him -sweet soundtrack -Terrifying moustache

Very fun film, some very intense facial expressions from the actors with an unexpected ending. Highlight: The music was fabulous!

A nice film with some great camera shots! A really nice ending that the crowd all enjoyed with some nice acting between the teacher and the student! Although it was Cat and Mouse it seemed like the chase went on forever

Upshot has got better and better as the years go by. And this year was no exception to that pattern. Cat and Mouse genre always run the risk of turning into a tedious chase, but I think they handled it perfectly. Well shot, good music, and it I did like the ending.

What I Liked: Great performances, nice take on the genre (two cat and mouse stories going on at once was cool) lots of strong visual comedy get me interested with good music keeping it all together. The resolution brought a smile to my face too It's a tough genre and they did about the most exact version of cat and mouse that you could do with out getting actual cats and mice involved.

Upshot are definitely improving every year they are in the competition. This was a tough Genre this year but they took a really classic and simple take on the genre and just did it well. It was sweet and fun and I enjoyed it. One of the things I noticed that I really liked this year was knowing when to take your comedy seriously and when to make fun of yourself. ( its one thing I think marvel do so well is knowing how to laugh at themselves ) For me this was clearest when you first see the lead actor and my instant reaction was "oh man... Thats a terrible Moustache" and then you went and did an extreme close up of it for a great laugh. That was very well done. Keep up the good work guys.

One of the nice things about doing this competition over multiple years (and keeping the same team name) is that you also start to get familiar with the work of some of your heat-mates - indeed, it seemed that most of the teams in Heat 8 are returning from previous years. And Upshot is one of those regular teams where I always look forward to seeing what they'll come up with. And this year's effort was full of their signature style, especially their fondness for bold, slightly-heightened, primary-colour characters. The set-up dabbles in Breakfast Club territory, but then once the teacher and student were left alone to stare it out, a little bit of Tarantino verve kicked in, both in terms of the editing/shot-choice and the music. The whole film was just one simple idea, stated clearly at the beginning and followed through on unapologetically right to the end. This focus, and the lack of unnecessary dialogue, really endeared this piece to me. Initially I had some frustration with the student character, since her motivation for her actions wasn't entirely clear. After all, who was her adversary? The junior teacher, or the senior one? But on reflection, I suppose she had intended to come back all along, and was just having fun messing with him. After all, do teenagers ever need a reason to be anarchic? Perhaps the only real issue I had with the film was that the extended chase sequence itself seemed to go on just a bit too long, with not enough shifts in the nature of the chase, or the stakes involved. Which isn't to say that it didn't keep me engaged the whole way through, especially with memorable moments like the foreground sandwich eating, the student on the roof, and the onstage cleaner routine (although there was a great big slip-on-wet-floor gag dodged with that one). And then there was that very cute Bart Simpson-esque allusion to the character trait in the lines we see the student writing at the end. It was all great big silly fun, but critically the filmmakers new exactly what they were making, and embraced the style wholeheartedly.