A TRIP ELSEWHERE
(director/writer: J.R. Sawyers; screenwriter: Jay Gutierrez; cinematographer: Lorenzo F Gonzalez; editor: J.R. Sawyers; cast: Madeline Blue (Kim), Andrea Geones (Sorina Hart), Janet Carter (Mrs. Hart), Faye Viviana (Dr. Harris), James Fahselt (Eric), Hayes Dunlap (Lenny Dugan), Lauren Lebeouf (Podcast Host-Rebecca), J.R. Sawyers (Dale Madden), Mara Mannle (Amy Whitlock), Nick Stellate (Titus), Claire Lebowitz-King (Podcast caller), Shanice Lynn (Podcast caller), Kerry Nash (Melanie Madden), Zack Johnson (Podcast caller), Magdalen Vaughn (Podcast caller), Steven Robert ReMalia (Mr. Hart), Farnoush Tamaddon (Podcast caller), Sahar Tahsili (Paramedic), Artemis Grace Jalali (Sarah), Harriette Coggs Stuckey (Tina); Runtime: 93; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: J.R. Sawyers; Apple TV/Crimson Wing Films; 2024)
“It’s a funky psychedelic pic that will turn on the stoners.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The L.A. based J.R. Sawyers (“Before I’m Dead”/”Nerve”) directs this provocative indie psychedelic film that’s made on a tiny budget ($85,000). Sawyers co-writes it with Jay Gutierrez, and shot it in 18 days.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in L.A., in 2020, four young adults take a record-breaking dose of LSD to relieve their anxiety about the lockdown and must find a way to recover from an overdose to return unharmed to the real world.
Sorina Hart (Andrea Geones) is a single mother who finds it difficult to care for her child after the recent deaths of her parents (who might not have a child), while the pressured Amy Whitlock (Maura Mannle) finds her days are filled with pointless Zoom meetings. Amy uncovers a small packet of LSD and invites Sorina over for an acid hit. On the way to see Amy, Sorina runs into her old high school friend Lenny Dugan (Hayes Dunlap), who can’t find work in a shut-down Hollywood and is delivering pizza to Amy’s neighbor, Dale Madden (J.R. Sawyers). After dropping off Dale’s pizza, Sorina invites Lenny and the paramedic Dale to the LSD party.
The acid trip profoundly effects each of the users in different ways, as the shared trip experience is explored and their struggles with grief and loss are exposed.
The trip seems authentic, the photography (using CGIs and animation) is visually pleasing, and the psychological dramatics give the pic some heft. The pro LSD pic states that if open-minded one can possibly share their dreams with others and might possibly heal their anxieties. I can subscribe to that notion, but I think you might have to legalize LSD so the product can be made safer in professional labs and thereby avoid being poorly manufactured by shady or incompetent street drug dealers (too many bad trips are because of bad tabs).
It’s a funky psychedelic pic that will turn on the stoners.
It played at “The Love and Hope International Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 12/28/2024 GRADE: B
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