Don’t Trip review
Don’t Trip plays to the strengths of its two leads.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Don’t Trip
Directed by Alex Kugelman
Written by Alex Kugelman
Starring Matthew Sato and Will Sennett
Don’t Trip Review
I’ve written a lot about the ways low budget movies send themselves off the rails. Usually, it involves reaching beyond their means. It sounds obvious, of course. By definition, a low budget means you’re working within some strict confines in a medium known to bleed cost. That kill scene you want as the centerpiece of your climax doesn’t work…people are going to notice it. There are plenty of ways to cover for what you can’t do…and it always begins with your script. Don’t write what you can’t do. You can carry a film quite far by simply writing a solid script that you know you can get up on a screen.
Don’t Trip doesn’t have the greatest script you’ll ever find…but it knows what it can (and more importantly can’t) do. It then finds another way to make its slight story stand out. Cast two strong leads…and get out of their way. Nearly every scene in Don’t Trip is built around letting its two featured actors perform with and opposite each other. There’s a simplicity to it that really allows the work to shine. The dynamic is everyman vs. wildcard…and it’s played for fun and menace in equal measure.
Dev (Matthew Sato) is an aspiring screenwriter who loses his job as an assistant. Feeling like he needs an edge after getting rejected too many times…he decides to target an influential producer’s son. The plan is simple…befriend Trip (Will Sennett) and get him to help his career. There’s just one problem. Trip is a loose canon who seems to get his joy from passively-aggressively destroying the people around him.
Sato plays Dev as an open eyed optimist. The perfect target for Sennett’s wild eyed (potential) psychopath. Don’t Trip opens with a scene that lends their story an added sense of danger for Dev as he falls deeper into Trip’s world. In the scene, a girl is attacked inside what we later learn is Trip’s home. Dev finds out about a missing girl partway through the movie…and her ties to his new best friend. It’s an economical way of telling us that Dev has plenty of reasons to end his strange new relationship. And it makes his choices to ignore them in favor of chasing a career opportunity work well for the story.
Don’t get it twisted…the story of Don’t Trip rarely attempts to get much deeper than that. What makes it work is the great work of Sato and Sennett. Trip is a quiet monster. Derailing and controlling Dev’s life in the smallest ways to gain control over what was supposed to be Dev’s conquest. Dev is obsessed with getting his screenplay read…and runs towards obvious danger to get it done. He believes things are going well for him. We can see Trip for the crazy dangerous trust fund spoiled brat that he is…because there’s nothing we can get from him. Dev gets exciting adventures and his rent paid for the time. Not to mention…the promise of a Hollywood power broker buying his script.
It isn’t hard to figure out where Don’t Trip is heading. But it isn’t trying to hide it either. The story wouldn’t place that opening scene where it does if you weren’t supposed to know the danger was real. This isn’t trying to be a mystery…it’s trying to have fun along a known path. And it has plenty of it. Trip is some kind of character. Walking the line between over-the-top and intensely in control. A lot of funny lines come out of his mouth in between veiled threats and passive-aggressive domineering. Trip could easily fall into caricature territory without Sennett’s committed performance. Playing off of Sato’s deer in the headlights everyman really lets the relationship find a strong footing.
Don’t Trip nails the most important parts of low budget filmmaking. Write what you can film. Find what you’re good at and focus on it. The result is a good movie that feels like it could go off the rails in a good way…instead of falling off in a bad way. Two great performances are given the time and space to develop a compelling relationship. There isn’t a lot to the story…but there doesn’t need to be. The journey Trip takes Dev on is the real story here. Don’t Trip nails that.
Scare Value
Don’t Trip makes the best decision a low budget movie can make. Figure out what your best assets are…and play up their strengths. In this case, the film’s best assets are the chemistry between its two lead actors. You’d be surprised how much mileage you can get out of that. Don’t Trip builds every scene around it…giving the actors ample space to play off each other. It benefits the simple story immeasurably, resulting in a fun watch.
3/5
Don’t Trip Link
Streaming on Tubi
