Blue Jay

4 settings, 3 actors, 2 colors, 1 day and 80 minutes that will warm your heart.

An emotional story that develops between old school friends who meet again after 20 something years after their ways part. Mark Duplass and Sarah Paulson have an amazing chemistry together and deliver high class performance. With well-written dialogues, relatable story line, and good music, it is the one of the best Indie movies of 2016.

Expect to be amused, sad, melancholic, and nostalgic throughout the movie.

I gave it 10 and would recommend it to everyone who appreciates good movies.

Short and pleasant, definitely worth a watch if you're into romantic movies.

Every once in a while you discover diamonds like this movie. Minimalistic, a script and just two actors who play their heart out. They have to be good because it is just them for every minute of the movie but boy do they succeed.

Mark Duplass acting that conveys the loneliness that his character feels but still making it seem so natural. You just believe him and I think it is combination of good dialog and brilliant actors that you never actually think they are delivering lines. It feels very organic.

Not to take away anything from Duplass but Sarah Paulson is carrying this. She is able speak just with facial expressions and looks. She will just change a look or tilt her head slightly and you will know what she thinks or wants to say and Duplass Character knows that to. In a way the audience is him trying to get as much as we can from the wonderful Amanda played by Sarah Paulson.

It's the first review I'm writing. Actually, I've never felt the need of writing a review- thought that the score I give is already a good contribution. But Blue Jay is something else. It's the most genuine feeling I've ever felt while watching a movie, in the sense the once I finished it, I didn't feel than it was far from my own reality at all. The way nostalgia was pictured is fascinating. The words that were used were so close to the words that I would have used myself in such a situation that sometimes, I've found myself saying out loud, at the same time, what one of them were saying.

Magical, genuine, sweet, emotional, simple, true. Brilliant.

Greetings again from the darkness. Mark Duplass is the master of awkward. As a writer he excels in awkward encounters, awkward conversations, awkward situations … and awkward people. He can even create awkward out minimalism – two people in a simple and normal environment.

A bearded Mr. Duplass stars as Jim, a seemingly normal guy who has returned to his small hometown to pack up his mother's house after her passing. While at the local market, he bumps into his old high school sweetheart Amanda, played by Sarah Paulson, who just happens to be in town visiting her expectant sister. Their awkward grocery aisle reunion leads to a very unusual … and yes, awkward … evening.

First time director Alexandre Lehmann uses his extensive experience as a cinematographer, and a black & white motif, to create a beautifully filmed story that is both simple and layered. Only one other actor appears in the movie … one scene with the great Clu Galager ("The Virginian", The Last Picture Show) as a local merchant who provides a link to the past for Amanda and Jim. The bulk of the time is spent in Jim's mother's house – a literal time capsule that allows for reminiscing for the two former lovers.

Amongst the old familiar clothes, photos, letters, books and audio tapes, Jim and Amanda somehow progress to a bizarre form of role playing/play acting as if they had married young and were now celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary. You guessed it … awkward. Dinner, dancing, acting silly, jelly beans, Annie Lennox and cutting loose leads them to an awkward bedroom encounter. This moment finally produces an explosion of emotion which uncovers the long-buried source of their break-up … shutting down their fantasy game of recapturing the past.

It would be pretty easy to compare the film to Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise (1995) or Before Sunset (2004), and though it has more in common with the latter, this one comes across more raw and melancholy than those more celebrated films. We never once doubt this situation could play out, but the only word to describe two former lovers exploring "what could have been" is … awkward. It's a captivating movie to watch and yet another feather in the cap of Duplass Productions.