1UP Parent Guide

Vivian (Paril Berelc) made it to university on an e-sports scholarship, playing high level competitive video games on the school team. Her friend, Sloane (Hari Nef), is the only other girl on the team, and they are getting sick of the sexist treatment they receive from their male teammates. Eventually, enough is enough, and both young women quit the team.

The only problem is that their scholarships are still riding on e-sports participation, so Vivian and Sloane have to put together a team of their own if they want to stay in university. Even worse, the college has decided that they’re only willing to fund one team, so whoever loses this tournament loses the team, their scholarships, and their futures. With the help of former games designer and current professor Parker (Ruby Rose), they put together an oddball new team, called the 8-Bits, composed entirely of other female students. They’re going to have to learn to work together quickly if they want any chance of beating the boys’ team in the national tournament…

1Up has some of the worst tonal dissonance I’ve ever seen. It feels like a Disney Channel made-for-TV nightmare movie which some maniac tried to retrofit for an adult audience by packing it with lewd jokes. The plot and dialogue (apart from the jokes) were written for, and arguably by, nine-year-olds but the rest of the content is geared solidly at the R-rated audience – not that that makes them any funnier. Mostly, it’s just gross.

Despite a relatively short runtime, the movie drags like roadkill stuck to a steamroller on wet tar. There are roughly three different training montages, none of which actually lead anywhere, and character development is limited solely to the protagonist, who eventually learns to play less selfishly. It’s not exactly a revelation. Everyone else just hangs around to give the background a little more vibrancy. Apart from the raunchy dialogue, the film has some other issues. While it isn’t as packed with profanity as I expected, the protagonist’s roommate keeps trying to dose her with psychedelics, including psylocibin and ayahuasca.

While the film does manage to bring some impressive diversity to the team, they never really develop or explore these characters and it feels more tokenistic than sincere. While I would like to see more inclusion of diverse groups in both film and games, 1Up doesn’t make it feel earned. Worse, it buries them in one of the worst scripts I’ve ever had the misfortune to sit through. This film marries all the disgusting joys of listening to a competitive game voice chat lobby with the infinite aggravations of made-for-tv kids programming. There’s a matchmaking error if I ever saw one.