Saving Zoë

The saddest part of this movie is even though this is fiction this actually is happening every day to children all over this demented world.

I enjoyed it, mostly. It's a little slow going but it's a pretty good story. Kind of a sad movie, especially once you find out how everything went down. Fair warning and without revealing any major spoilers, the how and why of the story is ultimately pretty disturbing. I think it's worth a watch if you like mystery and drama movies though.

The story itself is great. Like really awesome, the acting is good and the cast is perfect. The problem comes in the editing, the pacing, the direction, the visuals and the soundtrack.

First, some shots are like very weird, confusing, sometimes is easy to say if things are happening in the past or the present or if it's something that the main character is imagining. But sometimes it's ridiculously hard, that's the problem with the editing. The pacing is so slow that sometimes it makes you feel that there's no direction at all. The direction is because this movie seems so cheap and boring sometimes. Also, it's not visually appealing, some shots are just bored and the background music, some scenes are not so powerful or entertaining because it's so quiet, there's so little music in the background or sound that's just boring.

Surprisingly good. Well acted and tight screenplay. There are some comparisons to "13 Reasons Why" - but for people who don't have the patience for such drawn out angst, this movie is a better alternative. The story is good and doesn't get too unbelievable. Liked the dramatic conclusion - quite feel good and makes sense. There are some heavy themes about drugs alcohol and sexual exploitation and worse. It's more of a thriller than the average preachy angst filled YA fiction.

Having 2 sisters Vanessa and Laura Marano act together makes the story believable. Vanessa from Switched at Birth looks pretty here. The other cast members are good too including the dope fiend friend who has the druggie look down. Nathaniel Buzolic is good as the bad guy - he should do more villains. Ken Jeong plays it non comical for a change.

Worth a watch.

This movie takes you on a road to discovery to uncover why a teenager has died, which sounds familiar because it's the same exact plot as 13 reasons why but it replaces suicide with murder. The movie falls flat in trying to keep audiences' attention, and the graphic horrific scenes were not needed in the movie because viewers could have imagined the horrific video that was being watched by the protagonist (aka, Echo). The acting also fell flat which was a shame because it was such a dramatic film that you needed excellent acting to do justice to the script.