Amiss

I was at the Cape Town premiere and was very impressed with this film! It's hard to believe that this is the first feature-length production for the directors, as its quality surpasses many mainstream films in our cinemas. A gangster-type father has kidnapped 3 people whom he believes may have caused his daughter's suicide. He interrogates them and the story is told mostly through flashbacks. Good performances from the cast, who were all unknown to me. I reckon the strongest performance is from the father (Allan Choi). Meanwhile the daughter's (Kimberly M. Buxton) performance was the weakest for me. The music and cinematography are good, but the standout is the editing. The shoe-string budget for this movie does not show. The story is suspenseful with a genuinely surprising ending. I found it melodramatic, but then that can be said for the majority of movies, can't it? If this is their first big effort, I look forward to more from these young filmmakers...

It would be easy to praise "Amiss" with the use of qualifiers (e.g. "excellent for an independent/micro-budget/first-time film") but that only serves to separate it from its aspirations. This isn't a film that is looking for excuses or limits, it's a film that is looking for something beyond genre or budget. And it often finds that, comfortably.

This is a film that could have just become another derivative crime drama, but instead the film crafts a mystery where overlapping narratives deepen character and widen the scope of an intimate story. This is a very assured piece of filmmaking from a pair of first-time feature directors without the eagerness or mimicry common to other debut films.

—Jess Kroll (see full review at http://www.popmythology.com/amiss-far- surpasses-its- limits/ )