Notes from Melanie

For years, Chris Stuckmann has given us some of the greatest movie reviews on the internet. His reviews are less reviews and more like breakdowns on the given films. With someone who clearly understands movies, I was curious to see what Chris Stuckmann was able to create.

His first short film reminds me that it's not easy to create a Hollywood picture. This main character reflects Stuckmann's desire to create movies and because of that we begin to relate with him. It's also touching and sweet, which is what these types of shorts should be. Great work Chris. We all love you.

Going into this I thought, "Well he seems to know a lot about movies so this should be decent." Well turns out I was wrong. This movie is horrible. The first problem is the tone. It's like some kind of weird back n forth from awkward comedy to the serious path of a struggling film maker which is obviously Chris Stuckmann's film-making path put into this movie. I wouldn't mind the comedy if it wasn't spoken by two mediocre actors with no chemistry which points back to bad directing.

Last problem is its almost all handheld cam and if you pay attention hard enough you can see the camera shaking like someone is having a panic attack mid-scene. Really not needed and again bad directing choice. Only good thing I'll say is Flickinger's performance because it seems like he really wanted to show out for Chris. Other than that bad.

I'll be honest, a lot of the gags here are pretty hackneyed and the plot is just a conversation in which the only real pay off is that the main character learns to steal ideas from his love interest rather than existing movies.

That said, the camera work is spot on and the acting (particularly from Newberry) is so good that you actually briefly believe these characters in this weird roller coaster of a script that bounces back and forth from emotional-to cheesy-to funny.

The gags are each various dressings for over the top Flickinger cameos and they are pretty funny the first couple of times. If the script didn't rely so much on them, they might have retained their humor throughout, but unfortunately it does, and they don't.

In the end, Stuckman will likely go on to bigger and better things and this weird entry will just be a footnote.

Funny, heartfelt, and well-acted; I'm looking forward to seeing what Stuckmann, Heidger, and Newberry have to offer.

I liked the bits showing the fake movies. The Melanie character seems perpetually outraged which made it very hard to watch. I like Stuckmann's reviews plenty and he seems to do camerawork very well, but he's not great at writing dialogue. He's a talented guy, so I'm sure he'll improve with time.