Lighthearted but Shallow: 1Up's Take on Women in Gaming
In a post-Gamergate media landscape, it's ambitious to have a film confront the harsh reactions to women in gaming from a comedic lens.

A musical comedy set to a hip-hop beat, the feature debut from actress-turned-director Blanca Li finds a dedicated young breakdancer abandoning his comfortable life in a bid for fame in the U.S.A. Dropping out of school and leaving home to escape his overbearing mother, 18-year-old David dedicates all of his time to perfecting his moves with his dance team, the Urban Cycle Breakers. As David and his team begin gearing-up to face-off against a rival group of intimidating dancers, his dreams of finding romance with Samia and making it to the world dance finals in New York finally seem to be coming into focus.
In a post-Gamergate media landscape, it's ambitious to have a film confront the harsh reactions to women in gaming from a comedic lens.
The nations of Wakanda and Talokan enter war over their opposing viewpoints on dealing with the destructive hearts of humankind on the surface world.
“And I think to myself….what a wonderful world”. Louis Armstrong sang about this notion via his classic 1967 song, an ode to witnessing elements of our life that should be but some reminders of exactly what that concluding line of each verse indicates. Now we see our contemporary realities and, just being honest, it makes a sentiment like this seem SO overtly far away….perhaps even impossible….to accept or believe could be. It sounds harsh, but again, so much of what is occurring speaks not to beauty, but bedlam.
Never Have I Ever season 3 is charming and hilarious as it has been in past seasons and still sports a diverse ensemble cast. However, the show doesn’t always treat its marginalized characters that well.
Everyone needs a BFF and a "wing person" like Yumi (Chloris Li). Li brings the "straight person" persona, literally and figuratively balancing James Aaron Oh's perfectly timed comedic delivery as the unlucky-in-love.
The three themes of lessons learned from HBO Max's Station Eleven are the same as the pandemic: love, regret, and art.