-Written by Kyle Bain.
Living paycheck to paycheck, Uma (Kristin Carey) works her ass off to ensure that her son, Chris (Corydon Melgoza), has a chance to find success in life. When one night she runs into Chris at a club, while working another job, the truths of her past will come into the light. She’s forced to face her past–whether she wants to or not.
Carey possesses looks of sadness and desperation throughout the duration of Uma. She wears the tone of the film on her face throughout, without ever relenting, without ever leaving anything to the imagination in terms of Uma’s struggles. She’s the titular character, she’s what allows Uma to move forward and to find success. Writer-Director Ming Anne Geng doesn’t give viewers much time to settle in with this short film that clocks in at just around five minutes. With that, she needs something that is consistently effective in helping to develop tone and reel in viewers. Carey is that thing throughout. Her presence is felt from the opening seconds, and it transcends the entirety of Uma.
What Geng does specifically is create a sense of claustrophobia–and with that viewers feel confined only to the space that we can see on screen. The world feels small, and the situations in which Uma finds herself feel expressly depressing as a result. Uma uses themes like depression and isolation to reach viewers–and the use of close-up shots to create discomfort allows these themes to shine through effectively.
As tensions rose increasingly from start to finish, I felt more connected to the characters and the story as a whole. The entirety of the film exists in darkness, and not a second of it exists elsewhere. With a heavy film, following a mother desperate to find a future for her son, willing to risk her sanity, her time, and her livelihood, I think it’s important to have some levity–so that things don’t become too overwhelming for viewers. That levity never comes, and I’m not even sure that we get a happy ending (but I guess that’s up for debate). What does work in favor of stopping the tension from becoming too much is the fact that Uma is so short. By the time the story really gets going it comes to a close.
That’s not to say that the story is underdeveloped, or that I felt the story was incomplete–but the fact that viewers aren’t forced to sit and bathe in the turmoil that is Uma’s life for too long does help us refrain from becoming too downtrodden. We are able to escape Uma’s nightmarish hellscape before it’s too late.
Uma is ultimately a touching film that I think most will be able to relate to. Whether you’ve been in Uma’s shoes before or not, there is likely a piece of this well-structured film that will resonate with you, that will hit home, that will remind you of a time in your own life. Geng is effective in her storytelling, her pacing, her use of light, and the development of her characters–while Carey brings it home with her beautiful performance.
Written & Directed by Ming Anne Geng.
Starring Kristin Carey, Corydon Melgoza, Joe Capucini, Angel Ladao, Cazimir Milostan, etc.
8.5/10 = WORTH RENTING OR BUYING
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