My Eyes Are Up Here
2022 · 14m · UK
Directed by Nathan Morris
Tones: darkly comic, humorous, tender
After a one-night stand, Sonya—a disabled woman of color—wakes up hungover and in desperate need of Plan B, but getting to the pharmacy proves far more challenging than expected, even with her companion Tom doing his best to help.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Disabled-woman-needs-Plan-B comedy of accessibility errors. Jillian Mercado in the lead is the right casting; the morning-after-pill scramble structure is the rare format that turns an issue film into actual cinema.
Jillian Mercado leading a rom-com about getting Plan B as a disabled woman of color, with humor as the accessibility argument — Morris is making the obstacle-course-as-comedy structural choice, which is the right one. A genuine corrective to a genre that pretends bodies are interchangeable.
Routing a Plan-B errand through a disabled protagonist's actual accessibility obstacle course is the right structural use of comedy — Jillian Mercado in the lead makes it lived rather than performed. 13:43 of romantic-comedy bones repurposed as accessibility critique.
Reviews
A very sweet and entertaining slice of life that works toward subverting and breaking a lot of preconceived notions about the disabled.
Director Nathan Morris handles everything superbly, bringing all aspects, from the editing, to the sound design, to the music together to tell Sonya's story with just the right amount of humour and gravity.
Festivals
- BFI London Film Festival 2022
- Slamdance Film Festival 2023, Honorable Mention
- Tribeca Film Festival 2023