The Center

This is the second time I assumed because Amazon was streaming a movie you could trust the rating and that it was worthy of attention. But I'm learning the hard way to check the total number of ratings, and when it is low, like between 20 to 50, check out the internal spread. Apparently they do not go to that trouble. As in this example, you'll often find that half the ratings are spread out between 1 and 7 or 8, and then oddly, the other 40 to 50% are all 10's. I'm disappointed in Amazon streaming. I'm learning to stay with stay with Netflix

I'm pretty sure the other reviewers of this film are friends of the director. This film is exceptionally tedious. The actors lack energy and charisma and the writing is clunky. If you're interested in cults check out The Invitation or Hulu's The Path or even I Am Not Your Guru (really creepy!).

Seems like writers gave up halfway. Actors literally have zero talent and plot is laughable, cringeworthy in fact.

The high star reviews on this are one time reviewers -- utterly faked

In recent years, the popularity of a movie has been based more on the number of explosions, car chases, and other fun, flashy things than its grip on reality. Now, don't get me wrong. I love seeing a world eating robot blow up as much as the next person, but it is nice to have the director trust that I have a little more depth than that (albiet not likely much). With this in mind, it was refreshing to be able to sit down to The Center and see a real person living in the real world facing real challenges.

The directorial debut of Charlie Griak presents the haunting tale of Ryan (a truly believable Matt Cici) who really just wants to be able to connect with the people in his life and find meaning/fulfillment. This journey leads him down the road of self-discovery, aided in large part by The Center, a self-help group with some unorthodox techniques. The Center plays a major part in Ryan's journey of discovery, but ultimately, he is his own agent, following an authentic path to finding his true self.

Charlie Griak's ability to tell a story weaving in visual, audio, and thematic motifs is incredible. His message is clear, without being forced upon the audience. The grit of the characters truly shines, as does the fantastic score by Alex Berglund.

Since nothing blows up, there is instead a sense of beauty and wonder throughout. If you want to leave a movie with a deeper understanding of humanity and yourself, this is one you should really check out.

I don't know if you will like the film "The Center".

It is very polarizing.

What I do know though is that it is great to look at, it has great production value, and I really don't believe there is a wasted shot in the film.

Directed by Charlie Griak and produced by Judd and Annie Einan, the center is pretty simple to explain but harder to fully describe.

(I guess in the loosest sense there is a spoiler, but it is by the loosest definition only, as a plot summary is given in the next sentence or two.)

The simple explanation is that a simple man named Ryan (Matt Cici) with family and work issues gets recruited into a cult like group. His world changes for better and worse and eventually there is a resolution.

What is harder to describe is the immersion into this world. A world based in the reality of the city and Ryan's life and interaction with others, but centered in a place 97 minutes away.

Ryan's city life is pretty fleshed out. The lighting, framing, and editing make Minneapolis (St. Paul in reality) a real character in the film and performances by Amanda Day, Dan Carroll, Ramon Pabon, and Annie Einan fully sell Matt Cici (aka Ryan's) situation.

The scenes at "The Center" have equally great performances by Roger Wayne, H Thomas Altman, Judd Einan and others and the shots of the group members showcase a plethora of Minnesota talent without pandering to the "must show extras" mentality.

Joel Thingvall is great with a story, ... Mark Scanlan shows a great face, ... Kelly Barry-Miller has a nice scream etc....

none of the shots seem gratuitously unnecessary and serve the purpose of the film, which is to showcase the cult like mentality of the leadership.

The film itself has been traveling the festival circuit and showed as part of the ‪Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Film Festival‬ at the Saint Anthony Main Theatre on both 4/22/15 and on Friday 24th of April, 2015 at 10PM with director Q/A.

Both shows were sellouts. It also had a third screening during the best of fest and was 80 percent full on a week night.

The film has a lot of scenes on the cutting room floor as director Charlie Griak also edited and was ruthless. True he was supervised by Jonathan Demme, but to cut nearly an hour worth of material and to still have a streamlined story is genius. He effectively trimmed all of the fat and while some of the scenes excised from the film are great in themselves the overall story wasn't served by them as best it should have been.

(this is gathered by both talking to him and to some of the cast).

Upon first viewing I had a nagging suspicion that within the 72 minute runtime perhaps some of the story at the Center was shortchanged. However, if you watch the film and focus on that aspect of the story it really isn't, which shows just how good the editing was.

Hopefully you will get to view the movie. Perhaps it will still be called "The Center" then or perhaps it will go by its alternate name.... which while filming it was constantly stated that the title would be changed.

Since "The Center" serves as both the title and a character there is no further need for change...... read into that as much as you like.

So I could blindly tell you to go see it and to rate the film a 10, but I'll let you decide like the Ryan in the film did.

Maybe you will see something that you like, or maybe you wont, but I'll be under the Skyway walking by as you decide what do do with your 97 minutes on any given night.