Fraud

A couple (and their young child) live a life beyond their means, putting them in a desperate spot. What will they do and what is the aftermath?

"Fraud" is one of those films that makes me uncomfortable. Not because the material in the film is controversial, but because I tend to respect the old saying about only speaking nicely or keeping your mouth shut. And, unfortunately, this just does not give me much to work with if I want to be strictly nice.

One might say it is clever, innovative, or at the very least "experimental" that the film is shot on a home video recorder, and most scenes are really only a few seconds long. So the plot unravels through partial vignettes, leaving the viewer plenty of room to make their own assumptions about the characters. This might be seen as a clever device, perhaps, but it's a hard sell.

Any movie made with a home video recorder is hard to watch. Only on rare occasions to "found footage" and similar styles really work. This one works if we ignore the fact that the dad seems to be always filming… always… no matter how big or small an event is. And he continues to film while questionable activity is going on, making him either really stupid or unbelievably addicted to his camera.

Simply put, there is not much to see here. It has no humor, it has no scary bits. There is a modicum of suspense, maybe. If this were an actual documentary, it may have some sort of value in that regard, but it is quite obviously not a real documentary and hopefully does not pretend to be. Allegedly the director had to tell an audience that the family in the film had not committed any real crimes… but what gullible audience would have believed they did?

Right now, the film is making the festival rounds, and can be seen March 25 at the Boston Underground Film Festival (BUFF). This is not the must-see film of the festival, and it seems unlikely that a distributor will jump at the chance to buy it up. (And, frankly, with all the music clips in the background, it may not even be able to be released legally.)

As the patriarch of the actual family depicted in Dean Fleischer-Camp's subterranean séance, I sincerely hope everyone out of sheer curiosity gives FRAUD a good "look-see" to experience the cinematic magic...

Delightfully disturbing and unnervingly intriguing, Dean Fleischer-Camp's FRAUD is constructed from a family's real home movies that are stitched together into a completely fictional narrative. Finding the "seams" that comprise this patchwork of videos is part of the cinematic fun and quite the challenging puzzle to solve.

Here's something truly sensational:

🌟Gary Arnold ➡ the enigmatic father in this fictional film is trailblazing 🔥 a historic multifaceted investigation that promises to deliver no less than an epic verdict about one of Life's Greatest Mysteries: 🔎

✨👻 👀 👽 👀 👻✨

✨Are We Alone in the Universe❓😮❓

One is never more than a quick singer's waltz away... Just Google: WeAreNotAlone Gary Arnold to discover something that's the definition of Phenomenal ⚡ 😎 ⚡

🌟Gary's also repeatedly winning BIG jackpots 💰💲💰 via the Pennsylvania lottery using EVP messages ⚡🔮⚡

This IS 💯% legit & All Public Record too ❗❗😇❗❗

Yep ➡ Undeniable Real World 🌎 Results ❗👊❗

FRAUD is a timely and relevant film if one takes a moment to consider all the current commotion over "fake news", politics and American consumerism run amok.

Dean Fleischer-Camp's direction and Jonathon Rippon's impressive editing create quite an artistic feat of pure magic.

After watching the movie, I did a bit of research to find the family's actual YouTube channel AND it sure doesn't disappoint in the sheer number of home movies and adventures they have posted online.

If one is even remotely curious to see how different fact is from fiction, then a quick finger's waltz atop the keyboard will let you explore the REAL family who inspired the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF0pr_wuOvA