Sarah’s Room (Straight Shooter Film Review)

Posted by on Jun 19, 2015 in Feature Length, Featured, Narrative, Straight Shooter Reviews (Feature Narrative) | 0 comments

SarahsRoom_Poster

Director: Grant McPhee
Distributor: Indie Flix
Genre: Arthouse/Experimental
Running Time: 80 minutes
Budget: $6,000
Expected Rating: R due to language, adult situations, and imagery
Website: Click Here
Trailer: Click Here
Purchase: Click Here
Reviewer: Jeremy T. Hanke
Famous Film it’s most like: Eraserhead
Similar Directors: David Lynch, Darren Aronofsky
Final Score: 6.0 (out of 10)

Joe (Patrick O’Brien) is a reclusive man with dark secrets in his past, psychological problems, and addictions he wallows in. To help with the cost of their home—and to help keep her spirits up—Joe’s wife, Hannah (Kitty Colquhoun), invites her best friend, Sarah (Hanna Stanbridge), to move in as a housemate with them. However, when Sarah moves in, Joe’s world crashes down around him as he becomes lost in a world of visions, dreams, and confusion which might have something to do with drug use, mental issues, witchcraft, infidelity, obsession, sleepwalking—or none of the above.

Story

‘Psychedelic Madness!’ is the catch phrase the filmmakers use to describe this film on IndieFlix and, in this regard, they are dead on the money! read more

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The Good Book (Feature Critique)

Posted by on Feb 20, 2015 in Critiques, Critiques (Feature Narrative), Feature Length, Featured, Narrative | 0 comments

The Good Book

Feature Critique
The Good Book
Director: Sharon Wilharm
Expected Rating: G for General Audiences
Distribution: Bridgestone Multimedia Group
Budget: $10,800
Genre: Silent/Inspirational
Release Date: February 2, 2015
Official Website: GoodBookMovie
Trailer: Click Here
Running Time: 62 minutes
Critique Issue: #107 (02/15)
Critiqued By: Jeremy T. Hanke
Final Score: 8.0 (out of 10)

The Good Book is the story of how people’s lives are impacted by a single book—a red-covered Gideon’s Bible—that gets passed from person to person in the course of a series of events. With the hook being that this is a silent film, all the stories are presented solely through music and visuals (albeit, sans title cards).

Daniel (Even Fielding) makes a poor decision about illumination in his home one night and ends up with a house fire. Scared to deal with the repercussions, he runs away, learning about the real world through a series of providential encounters, one of which provides him with a copy of the aforementioned Gideon’s Bible. The Bible goes on to Alex (BK Bomar), a detective who helped Daniel find his parents, then the narrative follows him as he and his wife lose a child and are forced to struggle with their pain. From here it moves on to a homeless woman, a preacher’s daughter, an overworked waitress, and so on. read more

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Children of the Light (Feature Critique)

Posted by on Jan 2, 2015 in Critiques, Critiques (Feature Documentary), Documentary, Feature Length, Featured |

Now, we have received Children of Light from Dawn Engle, which looks at one of Africa’s most dynamic sons, Reverend Desmond Tutu, who helped organize peaceful protests against apartheid in his native South Africa. Tutu would become the first South African to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and he would do so before Nelson Mandela (who would also receive one) had been released from prison or...

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Die Gstettensaga: The Rise of Echsenfriedl (Straight Shooter Review)

Posted by on Aug 15, 2014 in Feature Length, Featured, Narrative, Reviews, Straight Shooter Reviews (Feature Narrative) | 86 comments

The future is a strange place. Die Gstettensaga: The Rise of Echsenfriedl tells a story about a world in which China finally declares war on—Google?? Following China blowing up part of Google’s home base, the U.S. declares war on China and their allies, launching nuclear missiles to deal with the problem. The effected allies in turn declare war on other countries, launching their own nuclear...

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The Strange and Unusual (Feature Critique)

Posted by on Jul 10, 2014 in Critiques, Critiques (Feature Narrative), Feature Length, Featured, Narrative | 0 comments

Joel (Tim Ross) is the producer of, “The Strange and Unusual,” a reality show that probes the mysteries of the unknown every week. When the show gets cancelled, Joel discovers he's allowed to do a series finale that people will remember forever. Armed with the show's star, Martin Luckey (Dervin Gilbert), and a skeleton crew, Joel heads to a small town in South Carolina to uncover a mysterious...

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Assumption of Risk (Feature Critique)

Posted by on Jun 27, 2014 in Critiques, Critiques (Feature Narrative), Feature Length, Featured, Narrative | 0 comments

Wes Riemann (Dan McLaughlin) is a numerical savant. He can predict your life expectancy better than almost anyone else—and it's led him on a fast ride into one of the most lucrative life insurance companies in the country. However, when a new colleague, Darci Bettencourt (Patricia Mizen), points out some shocking anomalies in the company, Wes discovers that there are some dark secrets...

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