Outside In

Good story, good acting, good cinematography... The score didn't catch my attention, but I guess it must have been decent. Loved the different relationships between characters. Also Kaitlyn Dever is so adorable! She brings a smile on my face every time I see her on screen.

The more I think about Lynn Shelton being gone, the more it's a punch in the gut. Outside In is yet another simply told story about people who are just fully themselves in all their vulnerable and warm and sometimes very troubled ways. This is filmmaking where you barely feel a false note, because you can feel the person behind the camera is intimately connected with her subjects. It's like Cassavetes if it was... calmer. This is a film with such compassion without ever going out of its way to go for the easy emotions. Jay Duplass quietly makes a powerhouse performance being so natural we don't see any acting. And Edie Falco is given a splendid, conflicted person who knows her heart is in one place and not the other. It's a film about what it means to have a family in the starkest sense.

Director: Lynn Shelton and writers: Jay Duplass & Lynn Shelton have created a story that goes straight to the heart & soul. Beautifully scripted, filmed, and acted "Outside In" is one of those unforgettable stories that puts tears in your eyes but a sense of hope and joy in your heart.

Jay Duplass plays 'Chris' an ex-con who comes home after 20 years in jail. We know his readjustment to everyday life will be challenging for him but too his luck there are people there who do not want to judge him for a long past crime. Love and friendship finds it's way back into his life but this brings alot of troublesome baggage with it. Chis just wants to do whats right!

This is a beautifully made film and the Duplass brothers have another star in their crown. I truly hope this movie gets the public attention it so deserves. Seek it out and watch it!

Although Lynn Shelton's slice of small town Pacific Northwest life (pay attention Everett and Granite Falls) in Outside In is so authentic as to defy artful interpretations, it is a minimalist portrait of ambitions circumscribed and affections compromised. In other words, it elevates working class melodrama into art house heavy while retaining the hint of desperate housewives of any small town.

Almost 40-year old Chris (Jay Duplass) has been released from prison after 20 years with the aid of his do-gooder former teacher, Carol (Edie Falco). Arriving in Granite Falls, Washington State, he is faced with hitherto unsuspected expectations from the two leading ladies: Carol and her daughter Hildy (Kaitlyn Dever). A brief brush with another lady reminds us that a handsome bachelor, recently released from prison for being innocent, is fair game for romantically inclined small-town women.

Shelton's approach is to let the realism dominate without veering too sharply into contrived, ironic situations. Chris's adjustment into civilian life will be fraught with suspicion and jealousy, just as in the real world his siblings and friends have always lived.

Falco and Duplass are so believably good as two adults who need to start life over that you miss the clichés and unsurprising turns because the leads become family whose fates matter very much to us.

Outside In is not kitchen-sink drama; it is simply simple life warm, troubled, and endearing. And that acting . . . .

"There are aspects of small town life that I really like - the routine nature of it, the idea of people knowing you and your likes and dislikes." Cress Williams

(Some of the photography wasnt that great) story was touching and sensitive. The age differences needs to be acceptable in our society as well as ex-cons needing more attention. It was good.