Outside In

The more I think about Lynn Shelton being gone, the more it's a punch in the gut. Outside In is yet another simply told story about people who are just fully themselves in all their vulnerable and warm and sometimes very troubled ways. This is filmmaking where you barely feel a false note, because you can feel the person behind the camera is intimately connected with her subjects. It's like Cassavetes if it was... calmer. This is a film with such compassion without ever going out of its way to go for the easy emotions. Jay Duplass quietly makes a powerhouse performance being so natural we don't see any acting. And Edie Falco is given a splendid, conflicted person who knows her heart is in one place and not the other. It's a film about what it means to have a family in the starkest sense.

(Some of the photography wasnt that great) story was touching and sensitive. The age differences needs to be acceptable in our society as well as ex-cons needing more attention. It was good.

Good story, good acting, good cinematography... The score didn't catch my attention, but I guess it must have been decent. Loved the different relationships between characters. Also Kaitlyn Dever is so adorable! She brings a smile on my face every time I see her on screen.

There's a strange quality to Outside In that made me feel like I was watching a movie I've seen before. There's a particular style to indie character dramas like this one that can start to feel familiar and unoriginal. I can't point to a specific movie I've seen about a man who gets released from prison and wants to date an older woman who helped him get out, but I always felt like I was 3 steps ahead of the story in this movie. They telegraph things early, and don't really deviate from the expected narrative. Honestly, I was much more intrigued by the relationship between the main character and the young girl, because that had more nuance to it. I liked the idea of a guy who was incarcerated at a young age finding that he relates more to young people when he gets out. There are some awkward moments that I didn't enjoy, but otherwise the story was just fine. The acting was decent, and the characters were somewhat compelling. It's one of the most average movies I can remember watching in recent memory. I wasn't bored by it, but I also wasn't enthralled by it. I wanted to see how the story would end, but I also don't know if I'll remember how it ended within a few months. It's the kind of movie that will fade from my memory and get mixed in with the large number of other bland character dramas I've seen throughout my life. Outside In even has a forgettable title.

A quiet piece of theatre that explodes into diverse emotions. It doesn't delve much into why Chris was imprisoned for 20 years but into how he copes with being free in a world that has passed him by. (He is amazed at what smartphones can do but he doesn't know whether he can send or receive SMS on his phone!)

Understandably, he has strong feelings for Carol, his only friend for 20 years, who helped him to become a free man. This causes problems for her, her family and himself.

Edie Falco's performance is powerful in a quiet, understated sort of way. The conflict that she has to deal with is palpable. Jay Duplass delivers magnificently on his role as a recently released prisoner with ambivalent but strong emotions. Add to these, Kaitlyn Denver's and Ben Schwartz's portrayal, and you have a powerful movie in the making.

The music is haunting: the ukelele and organ background music soars.

This movie is all about dealing with relationships, mending them, asking for forgiveness. Human drama at its best.