Julien Neaves, Caribbean Head Writer
Context: Back in December I reviewed the short film The Inner View by Trinidadian writer/director and my former drama teacher Eric Barry. While in recent conversation with him he mentioned a 2009 film which I had not heard of. Always on the lookout for Caribbean content, I had to watch it and drop a review. Which brings us to my review of 2009 comedy short Single’s Bar, which is a film adaptation of a sketch in Barry’s play The Five Foolish Friends in Shh…it happens. And as I mentioned in my The Inner View review (hey, that rhymes) he will be getting no special treatment. On to the review!
Review: A lonely woman heads to a bar seeking romance. And while she meets an attractive man who sparks her interest, things do not turn out as she hoped. To reveal any more of the plot would be to spoil the film, which runs at just under seven and half minutes (not counting credits). I will say that it is a pretty funny short. Pauline Mark (Bazodee, Between Friends, The Apartment: About Last Night) does well as the sultry, ditzy, desperate woman (known only as “The Woman”) and Stefan Murray is well cast as the sober love interest Jason.
The characters of Jason and the Woman are played by Mark and Murray respectively but voiced by Barry and the late Samantha Pierre, and their comedic timing is on point like a sharpened pencil. Also sharp is Barry’s quick, punchy writing that captures the awkwardness of these types of encounters and milks them for all their comedy’s worth.
It’s not a flashy production but it is effective, and a visit to this Single’s Bar should deliver its fair share of laughs.
Score: 8 out of 10
You can watch Single’s Bar for yourself by clicking here. And you can check out more TT comedy shorts below:
Julien “Editor Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by Freddy Krueger, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like “12 flavours of awesome sauce”. Read more.