UGH!
2018 · 6m · United States
Directed by Jimmy Marble
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, humorous
A vain, self-absorbed teenage inventor and her best friend wreak time-travel havoc in their 1990s bedroom with a machine that sees fifteen seconds into the future.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A teenage inventor who can see 15 seconds into the future and decides to use it for *maximum chaos* in her bedroom—this is the kind of premise that makes you laugh at the sheer perversity of it, and Jimmy Marble's absurdist sensibility actually earns the bit instead of punching down. It's a riff on sci-fi wish fulfillment that actively rejects the wish-fulfillment part, which is exactly the kind of subversive move consensus would sleep on.
Marble's command of comedic timing and spatial composition within the constraint of a single bedroom shows real formal discipline, and the temporal mechanics are threaded through with the kind of narrative precision that rewards close attention—this is lean, crafted genre work that situates itself squarely in the lineage of smart comedy shorts.
The decision to make the time-travel device's 15-second window just *narrow enough* to create maximum frustration and collision rather than actual problem-solving is the hinge that makes this work—it's a constraint choice that generates both the humor and the actual dramatic pressure, turning a high-concept premise into something that feels earned and human.
Reviews
With a disarming combination of extreme self-confidence, utter vanity, selfishness, righteous indignation, privilege, and idiot savant, the teens' terribleness somehow charms the viewer and makes their friendship work. Packed with visual gags, hilarious dialogue, subtle asides, and a healthy amount of cute male butt collages, "Ugh!" is a delightful screwball comedy that will have you quoting insults and crafting in no time.