This film made me sad. I'm an aspiring filmmaker. If this is how my first feature turns out, I don't know if I could be confident in my ability anymore.
I watched the premiere in San Francisco, I met the actors and the directors and I want to be clear, they're all very nice, good people that deserve our respect. I wish that made the film good.
The cinematography is actually very cool. They play with light nicely, though some of the slow motion was obviously shot in 24fps and then slowed which looks really bad. Also in low light levels they didn't use a denoiser in post so it can also be very grainy. Overall though, it was pretty and I enjoyed that.
Acting was pretty bad on all accounts. Especially the female mentor. This weird red head lady that was meant to be likable, but came off as a bit of a jerk. The movie definitely should have been in the native language of the lead actors with subtitles. That would have made this film infinitely better.
The set design was pretty horrible, very empty. I recognize that as an independent production so that wasn't necessarily their fault. So I tried to look past it, but it still bothered me.
The scenes that did have some value were the "street fight" scenes. Some of them were cool, the director obviously knew her way around the space and all the blocking.
As far as characters go, the film's lead was fairly unlikeable despite the fact that we were meant to sympathize with her. I'm not sure if that was the acting or the writing.
The plot wasn't that original either, but what is these days?
It's an enjoyable film, but if you're going to put 90 minutes into a film, this definitely wouldn't be my first choice. As a courtesy I'll mention a few other titles that are better with about the same length:
1. Bridge to Terabithia 2. The One I Love 3. Identity 4. Short Term 12 5. Moonrise Kingdom 6. Little Manhattan 7. Brief Interviews With Hideous Men 8. Coherence 9. 127 Hours 10. Stand by Me.
