Paranoia

First I have to say that I'm a fan of some lower budget movies. To me very few filmmakers make it big without first going through making a low budget/independent movie. Paranoia is just one of those low budget/independent movies.

The film stars Brad Jones, who does movie reviews online as The Cinema Snob, along with several other people who appear in his online videos including his wife Jillian. Brad plays Mark, a writer who has just had his wife leave him and begins to have a very surreal night.

The problem with a thriller is you really have to build up tension and make the audience anxious about what's going to happen next. I feel that this movie does a good job of accomplishing that. As Mark goes through his night he meets up with a few people and doesn't quite know what to make of the whole situation. Add to that the fact that the news is reporting that there is a killer on the loose in his town.

The movie starts off a bit slow and builds up towards the inevitable climax. Now I won't give away the end of the movie but I had to say I didn't completely see it coming and it's rare that a movie's ending can genuinely surprise me.

I've said what's good about this movie so what's the bad? Well obviously since this is a low budget movie what effects are there aren't that good and while Brad's acting is quite good you can see that most everyone else hasn't acted that much before. I have to say that I think the most wooden performance goes to Brian Irving who plays the character of Carl. Sarah Lewis who plays Mark's wife does a good job even though most of her scenes are pretty short and her husband Brian Lewis plays a pretty convincing cop. Brad's wife Jillian plays a waitress and has some good emotional scenes and makes it believable. But again when you are making a low budget movie and filling it with your friends not everyone is going to be a seasoned actor but it doesn't hurt the movie and I have to say I've seen movies with acting so bad you can't even watch it.

Now as of this review there are two versions of this movie. There is the original version that was released on DVD and there is the Writer's Cut. Brad Jones wrote the movie but wasn't the director and didn't have final cut so in the original cut there's a lot of foreshadowing to the ending as well as the repeated use of the word paranoia. The Writer's Cut changes the movie to black and white, adds some songs to the soundtrack and removes the use of the word as well as some of the foreshadowing. I have to say if you are going to watch just one version of the movie go to The Cinema Snob website and watch the writer's cut.

I have heard that Brad's next movie will be a comedy based on his Cinema Snob character however I hope that when he's done with that he'll try another non-comedic movie because this was a good solid effort.

My friends and I usually watch budget films for laughs. Favorite budget films that come to mind are Birdemic, Revamped, and The Room. This movie is NOTHING like those.

I was blown away at the video's quality, the music, and most of the sound and acting, too (there were hiccups in the acting, as well as the sound, but it was very rare that anyone missed a beat). The plot was very good, although the movie /did/ drag slightly. However, overall, I was very pleased with the entire show.

I heard that the film was made with the intention of proving a film could be good without a huge budget. If that is the case, they did a terrific job proving their point. I was much more entertained by this than I was most mega-films, such as any recent Terminator, Pirates, Waterworld, and Transformers.

That being said, if you like movies that blow you away with special effects, obviously an indie movie isn't for you, and you'll want to steer clear of it.

I'm giving it a solid 7 out of 10, which is much higher than I would rate most movies, because it is a good movie, but again, there is a little room for improvement.

This movie stars Brad Jones. Jones has an internet following as the Cinema Snob reviewing low budget horror films as an overly snobby film critic. This film represents his attempt to write a serious Thriller. Jones has directed other films in the past but none of them have had any strong production values. This is because none of these films had any kind of budget. Paranoia was written by and stars Jones but not directed by Jones. This film was directed by Ryan Mitchelle. With someone else directing Jones was able to work on the writing and his performance as the lead actor. This was a great improvement since great attention was given to the over all look of the film which greatly reflects the films dark feel.

Overall the film was enjoyable. The constraints of a low budget were obvious a few times but overall it was entertaining. Ryan Mitchelle's direction was solid. The pacing was slow at first but picked up mad way through. The final act of the film was actually pretty riveting. But next time invest in some better microphones. Jones' writing however leaves something to be desired. Overly indulgent and clunky dialog that goes on way too long.

I would recommend this film to anyone who loves indie films.

Being a fan of Brad Jones I had to check out his movie. Brad did an excellent job on writing the script and he was also good at acting too. The rest of the cast and crew did a good job to help movie the movie along. The movie was cliché but it is very good at keeping your attention. Being a screenwriter myself I was glad to see Brad follow a good three act screenplay. You know you have a good script when you see the main character introduced in the first moment of the film and at the end of it. It's better than a lot of films I've seen out of Hollywood lately. If you don't know of Brad and his friends you have to check out his work on his website. The directing was excellent and I recommend this movie.

Jones' acting in this film is surprisingly solid, having known him only from the Snob Reviews and his Midnight Screenings show. His performance, despite missteps and repeated driving&cigarette smoking, definitely carries the film. Brian Lewis as the policeman does a pretty fair job for looking nothing like a policeman, and Sarah Ogg and Jillian Z also turn out decent performances, despite a lackluster script. Brian Irving seems quite unfit as the mystic Carl Stowers, however. A deeper voiced, more menacing actor would have made more sense, and his light delivery and quarter-smile give him away. I enjoy the black & white writer's cut, despite its sometimes ill-placed soundtrack. Aside from Jones' acting, what made this film more than just watchable was director Ryan's ability to establish a creepy, uneasy, or just unsettling atmosphere. The low budget nature of the film only added to dark tone it maintained. The dialogue was written quite decently, though it is sometimes delivered too unrealistically to take seriously (except for Jones mostly)(his terrible "AHH!" headache screams notwithstanding) The weakest link in the chain, though, is the pacing. The film is too tonally one note to illicit any real feeling other than unease after the halfway point. Things become non-linear and clues come about, but until the climax, the viewer may struggle to gain footing as to what the hell is going on. I enjoyed it regardless.