The 12 Lives of Sissy Carlyle

It never ceases to amaze me how indie filmmakers jump over the endless hurdles that is micro-budget filmmaking. The story has a certain charm to it that almost anyone can recognize; I highly recommend this to anyone that loves and supports the art of independent filmmaking.

I found this on Amazon streaming, I have noticed more and more the unknown movies that show up on Amazon tend to be very mediocre, and often not even that good.

As this one. The "story" section on its main IMDb page explains what they are going for but the problem is the various scenes are dull, with dull conversations and uninteresting characters that do uninteresting things. The writer and director have no movie-making experience and it shows. As well as the cinematography which reminds me more of a well made home video.

I can't recommend this, I give it a "3" rating for effort and the actress that plays Sissy is very cute and has some charm, with the right script and a good supporting cast she could be really good. However the IMDb rating for movies like this cannot be trusted, almost half of the ratings are "10" no doubt added by members of the movie production and their friends. To me, and I suspect most others, this movie is not worth the time to view it unless you are friends with some of the cast members.

"Sissy Carlyle" is a very fun indie about a young woman who escapes a life stuck managing her deceased parents' Atlanta bookshop by keeping 11 journals of the wonderful adventures she could be having if she had just been born as someone else - as a Cosmonaut, an international spy, a huntress - all while a 12th journal, that would be about her own life, remains blank.

But when Sissy finds herself irresistibly drawn to a cute local artist - and starts reconnecting to her estranged, ne'er-do-well brother - Sissy finds herself drawn out and finds that having something at stake in the real world can contain all the drama of a fictional one.

I love seeing a classic city through an indie lens, and Sissy's fictional lives are a fun indulgence. But my favorite parts of this movie are and - who has a McConaughey vibe - and, of course April Billingsley, who, in Sissy, plays a dozen roles with subtlety, intrigue, and a real sense of fun.

A great, sunlit afternoon, put it on with the kids-type film.

A soaring score and beautiful cinematography embroider a story about a group of twenty-somethings adrift in Atlanta. At the heart of the tale is an estranged pair of siblings traumatized by their parents' sudden death a few years before. Both brother and sister are quirky as well as grief-stricken. He is hard to pin down about his various, questionable pursuits. She lives in her imagination, describing fantastic exploits in her journals, which he reads without permission. The two eventually open their hearts to each other's imperfect selves. In today's trauma-filled world, that's a happy ending!

Was all set for an interesting, entertaining evening. Five minutes in they dropped a gratuitous MF bomb... at which point I hit the stop button. When will these people ever learn: they won't lose viewers by omitting obscene language. They will lose viewers by including it.