Me, Not You

As we fly over an urban neighbourhood with a really nice drone shot we hear straight away the fallout from a domestic argument within one of the houses. It seems that Jay (Maddison) and Shay (Tibbenham) are having troubles in their relationship.

The morning after the night before and everything is still cold between the two of them. Shay dusts some make-up onto the inside of her wrist as she gets herself ready for work and spurns any moves of affection from Jay as he mopes about the kitchen in his dressing gown. It seems obvious what's happening between them at this point in their story. Mrs Pogba (Abiye) is also keeping an eye on things from next door and she, too, believes she has a good idea of what's happening with her neighbours.

As the plot thickens we listen to Shay express the difficulties within her relationship while also covering up the ugly parts as she has lunch and an otherwise banal sandwich conversation with her pal. Back at home the arguments continue and Mrs Pogba can't stay silent any longer despite her husband's reservations. Soon the cops are at the door trying to get to the bottom of the situation but unfortunately their questioning and their acting are so awfully ineffectual that at this point Shay and Jay are putting up a united front.

As you may expect there's more going on beneath the surface in writer/director/producer, Ademola Elegbede's short film Me, Not You. While obviously a film focused on the horrors of domestic violence and abuse, it turns out that it may not be telling the story that you thought it was. Unfortunately that's one of the very few surprising things about this production and even then it's not handled very well.

Along with the acting and the scripting being pretty diabolically bad there are also issues with the lighting in some scenes and it's actually quite difficult to pinpoint just what it is the film-maker is trying to say with this piece. While the first two acts are pretty straightforward and easy to follow the ending comes across as feeling rather confused and rushed. There's never any explanation as to what Mrs Pogba's involvement was all for and the stats that are rolled up at the end don't seem to match with what we've just seen on screen.

There are some nice elements to the film, such as the aerial photography, a decent brooding soundtrack and a few nice shot selections, but none of these can lift the film from being sub-par in other areas. Me, Not You ends up being a bit odd and not very good which is a shame as it deals with such an important and emotive issue.