UP ON THE GLASS Is Toxic Good

What if your best friend invites you over for a weekend of fun but instead trashes you into believing they are better than you? Most people would ignore that person and end any relation with them. Up On The Glass suggests we stand like sitting ducks and take whatever comes our way.

Jack (Chase Fein) is a recently unemployed carpenter that accepts an invitation from his college friend, Andy (Hunter Cross), to spend the weekend at his beachfront house. Jack is smarter than his friend but overthinks things more than he should. Andy has always had the ability to get the connections he needs to climb the social and entrepreneurial ladder—there’s also some influence from the social circles he was born in. Andy always finds a way to criticize and point at Jack’s mistakes for not doing better than him; even so that he reminds him constantly that his wife picked him instead. At the same time, Jack always finds a way to judge Andy’s bad decisions and infidelities. By this point, anyone can understand that their relationship is toxic. On their last night together, Jack and Andy decide to face each other like if it were their last will but, as voices are raised and fury rages in their veins, it could also be the last breath for one of them.

At the beginning, the film is a tribute to the manifestation of boredom by maintaining the banner of bros before you-know-the-rest. It starts to pick up a faster pace by the end of its second act, when all masks are off and a smackdown provoked by entitlement entails a dreadful faith for one of the characters. Once drama is over and a race to cover their tracks starts it gets interesting.

This is the type of thriller that leaves action on a sideline, mingles with the psychological aspect of the characters and toys with dramatic situations to push them into achieving catastrophic results—it’s something that I would consume, including its open-to-interpretation denouement.

Up On The Glass is toxic good and will make you have empathy for the sinner. It may not pair well with other viewers when they understand the religious undertones it sets for each character, but when you put it aside, it’s enjoyable.