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The Atlantan (Straight Shooter Film Review)
Director: Andrew Treglia
Distributor: TBA
Genre: Crime/Noir
Running Time: 81 minutes
Expected Rating: R for violence and language
Website: Click Here
Trailer: Click Here
Online Purchase: Click Here
Reviewer: Jeremy T. Hanke
Famous Films It Resembles: Layer Cake, Reservoir Dogs, El Mariachi
Similar Directors: Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez
Final Score: 8.0 (out of 10)
Jimmy (Andrew Treglia) is a man who tries to do good for his community by helping out as a substance abuse counselor. However, when a tragic accident kills his wife, Melanie (Shanal Curtis), and newborn son, Jimmy Jr, he finds himself without a rudder, adrift in a river of despair. In his grief, he returns to his old addictions and adds some new addictions along the way which threaten to destroy his very soul.
Sarah’s Room (Straight Shooter Film Review)
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!
Law of Sin (Straight Shooter Film Review)
Director: Daniell Nelson
Distributor: Amazon Instant Video/CreateSpace
Genre: Urban/Adventure
Running Time: 127 mintues
Budget: $5,000
Expected Rating: R due to Language
Website: N/A
Trailer: Click Here
Digital Rental: Click Here
Digital Purchase: Click Here
Reviewer: Jeremy T. Hanke
Final Score: 1.0 (out of 10)
[Editor’s Note: The point of the Straight Shooter review is to help film fans decide whether to give an Indie film a shot or not. It’s designed for films that’ve been polished enough so that the filmmakers feel they’re ready for a national release.
For films that are not ready for wide release, we offer film critiques—which are designed to help people make better films—because Straight Shooter reviews can seem pretty heartless if your film isn’t ready. The choice, however, is left to the filmmaker as to which place they should submit their film.
Unfortunately, this is a film where the filmmakers would’ve done well to read through our articles on filmmaking before releasing this film. Probably the best single book I could suggest for the future for adventure or action filmmakers would be the DV Rebel’s Guide by Stu Maschwitz. -JH]
Strange things happen when you’re in a city and you decide to make a film.
The Law of Sin is about such an idea.
Precaution (Short Critique)
Director: Manuel Crosby
Expected Rating: PG
Distribution: Self-Distributed
Budget: $175
Genre: Suspense-Thriller
Release Date: February 6, 2015
Official Website: Click Here
Trailer: Click Here
Online Version: Click Here
Running Time: 18 minutes, 3 seconds
Critique Issue: #110 (05/15)
Critiqued By: Jeremy T. Hanke
Final Score: 9.2 (out of 10)
Long time readers of MFM will quickly recognize Manuel Crosby as the director who made Broadcast, a surreal survival-thriller a couple years back. With “Precaution,” he’s back with another thriller, but this one in a modern urban setting.
Henry (Dave Reimer) is an unemployed architect with a very pregnant wife, Shelley (Amy Lynn). Unable to find a job, he becomes obsessed with a criminal who’s broken into a nearby house and killed the owner. To try to protect his family, he decides to take precautions. But will he be able to anticipate the events those precautions will set into motion?
Woodfalls (Straight Shooter Film Review)
Director: David Campion
Distributor: TBD
Genre: Crime/Drama
Running Time: 72 min
Budget: $15,000 USD (£10,000 UK)
Expected/Actual Rating: R for language and violence
Website: Click Here
Trailer: Click Here
Online Rent: TBD
Online Purchase: TBD
Reviewer: Jeremy T. Hanke
Final Score: 7.0
The Marr family–a group of Irish gypsies, known as “Travellers”–camp outside the rural town of Woodfalls. Unwelcome by the townsfolk, a feud erupts between the eldest boy traveller, Billy (Matthew Ferdenzi), and Damon (Gareth Bennett-Ryan), the son of a local criminal leader. When Billy’s sister, Rebecca (Michelle Crane), goes missing, things begin to spin out of control for all involved.
The Good Book (Feature Critique)
The Good Book
Director: Sharon WilharmExpected 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.
Children of the Light (Feature Critique)
Director: Dawn Engle
Expected Rating: PG-13 due to historic imagery
Distribution: Gravitas
Budget: $40,000
Genre: Documentary
Release Date: June 2014
Official Website: PeaceJam.Org
Trailer: Click Here
Rent/Buy: Click Here
Running Time: 92 Minutes
Critique Issue: #106 (01/15)
Critiqued By: Jeremy T. Hanke
Overall Score: 9.0 (out of 10)
For nearly 9 years of MFM’s life, one continent remained dark: Africa. No films had been submitted from there and no contact had come out from there, despite our heart for those throughout the world, especially in areas that have the fewest international storytellers. A few months ago, we got to know Anwuli Okeke (who now writes for us) who has been working with iLunafriq to release the voices of native African filmmakers to the outside world.
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 apartheid had yet been abolished.
Die Gstettensaga: The Rise of Echsenfriedl (Straight Shooter Review)
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...
The Strange and Unusual (Feature Critique)
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...
Stalled Love (Short Critique)
Eddie (Steve Theiss) is in trouble with his girlfriend, Lori (Sarah Nadeau), because he's making eyes at Rebecca (Iliana Inocencio). However, when he follows Lori into the women's bathroom to explain, things go further awry when he gets stuck in the adjoining bathroom stall.
Assumption of Risk (Feature Critique)
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...
SPARKS (Straight Shooter Film Review)
SPARKS is a comic book movie with a refreshingly dark twist. It starts not unlike a mash up of a lot of super hero movies: shortly after a meteor destroys most of Rochester, NY, young Ian Sparks (Chase Williamson) is orphaned by a violent crime, raised by a loving grandmother in a small town, and then moves to the big city to fight crime.