Hemisphere

Sitting through this film I didn't know what to expect. What a pleasant surprise. Independent films sometimes out perform and Hemisphere is definitely one of them.

The director did a great job holding to those elements that were entertaining and impactful. I liked the conspiracy elements and the characters felt fleshed out - not an easy thing to do on a smaller budget. The sets were imaginative and visually compelling. The team here felt committed to what they were doing and it sure pays off. I've always liked these kinds of films and the filmmaking team pulls off a genre that is not easy to get right. Well done!! I couldn't recommend it enough!

Such a shame -please read if you're on the production team I truly hate giving a poor review, but this movie feels as if it were made as some kind of school project. It was let down so dramatically by the shockingly poor special effects, staging and costumes. This started with the (even now outdated) iPhone being used for communication on the shuttle, the AI, which looked like a cross between a one-armed bandit and a coffee machine with weird voices and even weirder accents, the whole space station looks like someone's badly made home extension, random bits of badly painted mdf stuck to stuff, a ceramic bathroom sink and wait for it... skirting boards everywhere... on a space station!?! The space suit consisted very obviously of an old crap crash helmet and ski gloves, donned over a set of overalls, I could go on but it's not great karma.

The script wasn't very high standard and the delivery in places wasn't particularly natural. It's a real shame, as this movie had some potential, but the failings were simply too many and too distracting to allow me to enjoy it. I did like the lead actress, despite what she was working with, she did a pretty good job. Also the dead body in the vent gets a thumbs up too.

I assume all the friends of family of filmmaker and actors wrote those reviews. This might have been an interesting short film, had there been competent acting. There was not.

In a space station, communications with Earth has ended. What has happened? Jim sends his ex-wife, a pilot? Investigator? To find out what happened. Though there is a working AI computer, and you'd think they'd just ask it. So she goes, and there's a body, and who killed him? A woman drops out of the ceiling and says "we were attacked." And then they sit and chat INTERMINABLY and the mystery is revealed and it's cliched and uninteresting and then the movie is blessedly over.

As interesting and as obviously impressive as the Sci-Fi production values truly are, writer-director Chris Maes wisely chose to focus most of his minimalist budget and affecting narrative on his two excellent and very attractive female leads, their imperfect relationship and the desperate circumstances they are forced to solve as a team if they are to survive. The close interplay between the two felt very dramatic yet wholly natural and unforced and held my undivided attention throughout which speaks really well for this first time feature film director and his very talented crew from which I am eager to see more.

Full disclosure, I know a lot of the people involved on this production, and my immediate take away from all of this is that the performances stand out the most, especially Paige and Julie's performance -- that's a testament to the direction and writing on part of the director, Chris Maes.

This being his directorial feature film debut, what stood out to me was the plucky, bare-knuckle style and grit to the film that makes it enjoyable and worth investing the time into watching. The obviously fault here is that the film wears its budget on its sleeve **which is the case for just about every indie-film** but is especially hard to overcome for indie-science fiction...if you look passed budget constraints then the story becomes a lot more meaningful and enjoyable to watch.

Beyond that, I think the real winning take-away here is that we live in a day and age where science fiction is no longer out of reach for independent filmmakers and that's both inspiring and amazing...so big kudos to the producers for having the gumption to create this. I could never have imagined anyone would attempt a 2-piece chamber film in a small set-location designed to be a space station, but I am here for it!

You can't judge this movie by the shortcomings when you see the earnest attempts made by filmmakers that cost millions and fail horribly due to cliché and forced Hollywood pandering *cough* looking at you Last Jedi....this film fits really nicely into its own category and I really hope to see what Chris has up next.