In Your Eyes

Joss Whedon is the creator of "Firefly" (2002-2003) or "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer" (1997-2003). The first a cult TV show, the second a terrible show that became almost a sci-fi classic piece of work, don't ask me why. All of this before becoming the guiding light of the Marvel films. But even before that, a young Whedon wrote this script right when he moved to L.A.

Almost two decades later, Whedon and writer Brin Hill ("Won't Back Down", 2012) teamed up to create a small project through a small company, Bellwether studios, who supported the film. This way you have a fully independent and funded movie. Rebecca (Zoe Kazan, the unforgettable Ruby Sparks), is not happy. She is married to a brilliant doctor and has everything she might need, yet she feels out of place and empty. Right across the country, an ex-con named Dylan (Michael Stahl-David) tries not to mess it up once again, since he has been a disappointment to everybody he ever knew. How these two opposite people can even begin to click? that is the reason to watch. It is an unexpected kind of love, but it is love anyway. This is not a classic boy meets girl, falls in love and so on. This is about how lost people can find themselves and their soul mates, in any given moment and in the most mysterious ways. Kazan and Stahl-David play flawed characters, but they are so human, so real you cannot help but relating to them. The movie keeps an intimate approach, and ultimately it gets to you, it is fantastic yet familiar. Don't miss it.

Absolutely loved this film. A fresh idea that I personally have never heard of has finally made its way into the film industry. They only ever come by once in a blue moon. The casting is spot on. Zoe Kazan and Michael Stahl-David were perfect for the roles of Dylan and Rebecca. Ever since I saw Michael in his breakout role of Rob Hawkins in Cloverfield, I knew I had to keep and eye on him. He is definitely going places and this movie proves that.

This is the sort of movie where chemistry plays a major role and they without a doubt pulled it off. Without it, it would have been a big flop. Although it wasn't made on a small budget, it still had the same feel as one, which is nice. It adds a whole other element to it.

I could easily watch this another couple times and still be just as pleased as the first. Definitely worth buying.

I saw this movie at its premiere the Tribeca Film Festival. It had some really good dialogue and some very funny scenes. The movie takes a little bit of time to get its footing, but once it finds it the movie is interesting and funny. It occasionally borders on getting cheesy but the better parts of the film more than make up for it. It is somewhat predictable, like most romantic movies, but that doesn't really detract from the movie at all.

The acting is really good from all of the leads and the chemistry between Zoe Kazan and Michael Stahl-David is great despite not having much on screen interaction. Director Brin Hill did a great job of making a potentially disorienting topic really easy to follow. The dialogue is very witty as is typical in Joss Whedon's work. There is also a lot of genre mixing which is typical in his films.

The movie is successful in pretty much everything it attempts. The movie is very funny, interesting, and at times, fairly intense. Despite being a micro budget movie, it does not feel that way at all.

This is an amazing, lovely and underrated movie. I'm sad that most people don't know this. The acting is great, both of the main characters. They feel real and makes me really want them to be together. Not like some other awkward films. The feelings I got during and after watching this movie are still here. Love, joy, fun and sadness. Trust me, don't miss this. You will feel "LOVE" again after watching this.

In Your Eyes (2014)

A terrific concept—and it unveils early on but if you don't know it it's a great surprise—and a well done movie, too. The key is the two main actors, a young man and a young woman in very different circumstances who seem destined for each other.

And they are 3000 miles apart.

Zoe Kazan (granddaughter of the director) is terrific throughout, playing a well- heeled woman with a controlling husband in beautiful New Hampshire. And Michael Stahl-David plays her counterpart with similar introspective intensity, but as an minor ex-con in a trailer in beautiful New Hampshire. What they have in common is something no one else has—and no one else can know about.

It's the ultimate romance movie in that first sense that you know they belong together and circumstances are keeping them apart. But it's also a romance in a deeper way, because the two get to know each other with extreme openness and intimacy. They naturally fall in love. And the world naturally will not make it easy.

In many ways the filming is quite solid in a familiar way, not drawing attention to itself except in scenes where two realities are made to blend (crudely). This is all about story and more story. Some of the side characters are imperfectly developed (even the controlling husband doesn't always resonate quite right). But the two leads are spot on, and their parallel development is our fascination.