Room

I actually liked this film. No it isn't perfect-but it gave me a feeling that not many others have. I'd compare the feeling to the one I got from Clean, Shaven and Inland Empire. Sort of a nightmarish claustrophobia, but the sort you get from being stuck inside your own body. I think the director deserves credit for a haunting, unique film. I really related to the main character in her 'lostness'...this movie really gets that the most disturbing things are not subversive or alien to us- they are real situations, every day things. No, there's not a real plot or a satisfying-loose ends-tying finale, but if there were I'd feel cheated because life isn't like that. I think this film has been reviewed by too many people who have never experienced real fear.

I think it should be said that the quality of this film depends on what you're hoping to get out of it.

On one hand, there is a very cerebral character to this movie; there is a tension in figuring out what is actually happening to the character even through the end. The script and cinematography work well towards this end, and the movie doesn't seem to force any particular perspective on the viewer.

There is something to be said, however, for pronounced direction in a story. To say that this movie is slow, confusing, unsatisfying, or just plain boring would not be to make an unfounded assertion.

It all rests on what you expect Room to be...

Well, at least this movie was short - only about an hour and ten minutes. Yet I still want to kick myself for wasting that much of my life on this movie. I'm not one to bash filmmakers - I can appreciate the effort in almost anything. But when you make me sit and wait and wait and wait for some kind of reason for the existence of the film, let alone any kind of resolution of the story, and you leave me with nothing, then I'm just plain annoyed. I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I tell you there's almost no story at all here. If you read the synopsis provided by the filmmakers, you already know the whole story, what little there is. Films like this are what give indie film a bad name. Though Cindi Williams gives a credible performance as the lost-soul heroine of the movie, there is no other redeeming quality I can find here. I felt this movie was a complete waste of time.

I have included unwanted information about the ending, it's not direct, therefore I don't really know if it is a spoiler or no OK, first of all, I can understand that this movie has such a low rating. But I'm afraid I can't agree with it. The movie is somewhat very different from what people are used to see. I saw this movie at LIFFe which is a film festival held at the city where I live. I wanted to see this movie because it is supposed to be experimental.

The film itself has a very minimal approach, which I would blame on the budget. But it's not my job to go into technical specs. The movie takes on a completely different approach, the movie does not answer questions that are raised, this is why it is unique. Some people find it horrible to watch because the movie is somewhat more visual and there is very little dialog. The movie leaves everything to your imagination and along the way it gives some small hints which may steer you. I really loved the ambient that the movie creates, the sound scape was great. If you wish to see a movie that obeys no logic and obeys no formula for making a movie, I think this is what you should go and see. It is an experiment more than is a film.

Rating 7/10

I was very disappointed by this movie and all I could think of was that I wanted the time and money back that I wasted. I can't believe that the Austin Film Society granted Kyle Henry the money to make this "film" that never seemed to go anywhere. Kyle Henry and Cyndi Williams were in attendance and they didn't even seem to know what the movie was about during the q & a session. Kyle stated that Americans are often spoon fed the answers in a film that are merely crap. Well I would have like to have been spoon fed some of that crap because at least those movies have a direction, a definitive ending, and leave the audience with something to think about other than that's an hour of my life I'll never get back.