This is becoming a sad and predictable trend with these new alleged indie "filmmakers". Getting their friends, and even members of their own cast and crew leaving overly positive reviews/ratings on work that clearly doesn't warrant it. One of my good friends was originally cast in this when it was a short. My friend was then informed that one of the producer's dad was going to double the budget (from $10,000 to $20,000) and make it a feature. LOL, of course that $350,000 alleged budget is obviously another farce by production. Another disturbing trend among these wannabe filmmakers, they put bogus numbers on IMDb, have friends (and in this case even cast and crew members) leave overly positive reviews. After reading the feature script, my friend passed on the film immediately.
On to the film itself, my friend and I were able to get a screener of this film. Needless to say, my friend was quite ecstatic and relieved to have passed on this "opportunity". I've personally been a huge indie film buff for many years. My friend and I agreed that the only honest and redeemable quality of this film was the very apt title. "God Forgive Us" - Unfortunately for them, I don't even think "God" can "forgive" this mess. The story was predictable and forced, the writer tried too hard to be dark but failed to add the necessary substance to carry this vision through. It honestly made me think that if the Goth Kids from South Park made a film, this is what it would look like. - The world is so dark, so empty, the loss is palpable, I hate my white suburban parents, my daddy doesn't love me, let's go hang out at Denny's for 6 hours and order nothing but coffee and whine about how messed up the world is - blah, blah, blah, blah.
The performances were uneven, which is a clear indicator that the director was not very strong. Some of the cast had some true bright spots in a few of the scenes, but those moments were inconsistent at best, which usually means the talent was there and the director simply dropped the ball. You could also tell that some of the smaller roles were played by people that were not actors. Another mistake that inexperienced filmmakers tend to make. They figure that if it's a small role, we won't notice. We notice, it actually sticks out like a sore thumb.
The cinematography was clearly the best part of this film. Some of the shots were lit poorly, even given the subject matter and some of the shots seemed out of place for the overall tone of the film. However, it seems those issues were the result of an inexperienced director trying too hard to be artsy or edgy. The sound was average, clearly some issues on that front, but that is not unusual for a $20,000 micro budget indie.
Overall, this is a poorly executed film regardless of how many friends and family they get to write bogus reviews of how amazing it is. Perhaps these "filmmakers" would benefit from actually going to film school instead of wasting their parent's money and creating fake buzz for work that would better serve everyone involved if it was not seen.
