Fuck You Cupid: Review. By Simon Thompson

Writer/director Felipe Marinheiro’s Fuck You Cupid is a well-crafted short film from a visual standpoint, but sadly suffers from a largely lacklustre script, which detracts from the short’s beautiful cinematography and lighting. Before seeing the short itself, the in-your-face title made it seem like it was going to be some sort of raunchy 2000s style comedy centred around valentine’s day, but in reality it’s a much quieter, more subdued affair than the title suggests. 

This is an issue, because while I could see why Marinheiro wanted to go for a title that would get people’s attention, the knock-on effect of having a title like this one is that it trivialises Marinheiro’s intentions with the tone and story. 

The plot of Fuck You Cupid centres around a lovelorn woman named Luna (Madison Vice), who decides to visit a mysterious medium (Starla Caldwell) to return her long lost love to her. The medium manages to grant her request, but as Luna becomes reacquainted with her old boyfriend once again, a constant fear plays in the back of her mind that his love for her is part of the medium’s spell and not his genuine desire. 

The cinematography by Nick Szubart is definitely the shorts’ strongest quality. Szubart manages to create a beautiful symphony of dark blues, moody, almost neo-noir like lighting, that squeezes every ounce of beauty out of the film’s location. Where Szubart’s cinematography is at its absolute best, however, is in the scene where Luna is watching an old black and white film, where the contrast between the dark of the screen and the blue filter creates a stunning effect. 

The script by Felipe Marinheiro however, leaves a lot to be desired. It’s a cliched, drab and overly melodramatic script populated by bland one-dimensional characters. Given both that this is a romantic drama and Marinheiro clearly wants us to care about the central character, the poor scripting completely hinders Marinheiro’s intended goal. 

To conclude, Fuck You Cupid is a frustrating and unbalanced short that, despite some visual flourishes and some relatively solid acting from the film’s lead Madison Vice and some genuinely sinister charisma from Starla Caldwell in her performance as the medium, still can’t overcome the problems in Marinheiro’s script which completely obstruct any of the good work done by some of the cast and Nick Szubart’s cinematography.

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