User reviews

So I saw this on Amazon Prime and the synopsis looked interesting. Having a couple of hours spare, I thought I'd give it a go.

When it started it did suffer from the trait of super low budget films where the camera was just too close to the actors faces and I considered cutting it short. However, there was something interesting in the characters and whilst I initially railed against Buddy's puritanical interrogation of Daphne, I found myself wanting to know more about both of them and actually see them get it on.

Whilst Daphne's body is lovely to look at, it wasn't the titillation of seeing sex but rather watching two clearly lonely individuals experience a meaningful physical connection.

The film raised questions about prostitution, about appreciating the female form and what power/control that brings and about the crippling feeling of loneliness. It recognised the fantasy fulfillment and sexual needs that it satisfies but it also broached how it can be a way of making a physical connection with another human for a brief period of time.

Richard Brundage does well but I have to commend Jessica Bohl's acting. Whilst she is pleasing to the eye, it's the self assured confidence that she has, or rather portrays in her role, that is so arresting. She comes across as both level headed, capable and responsible but also approachable and vulnerable. I've not researched the careers of anyone connected with the film but I certainly hope that she, and the director, have used their talent to go further in this field.

Overall, a surprising low budget gem that has left an impression on this old and sometimes melancholic guy.

Initially I wasn't especially interested in watching this movie but figured I'd watch something different for a change of pace-I'm glad I did. It's not a particularly engaging film but if you pay close attention to the relationship between the two characters the plot unfolds quite nicely with a shocking twist at the end. Very unexpected conclusion and a very interesting journey throughout the film with really raw emotional risks taken by both of the main characters. Really solid, well written film that delivers.

Do not watch this movie if you're depressed. It is VERY depressing. That being said, it is a great, low budget film with great dialogue. The actress really shines. It will stick with you.

There were moments when watching, "You Are Alone" at the New England Film + Video Festival recently, when I felt the lead characters seemed very familiar, like old college friends, who gradually become larger than life. The journey these characters undertake is at turns, poignant and hilarious, and a testament to the artistry of screenwriter/director, Gorman Bechard, who wrought such authentic characters, and the actors, Jessica Bohl (Daphne/Britney) and Richard Brundage (Buddy), who brought them to life.

Several comparisons have been made to Coppola's, "Lost in Translation." To me, the film was more reminiscent of Pen-ek Ratanaruang's, "Last Life In the Universe," in terms of its edgy, melancholic beauty, laced with the kind of smoky humor I associate with Jarmusch and the hermetic intimacy of Roehmer.

Finally, much well-deserved ado has already been made about Bechard and Bohl, about which I heartily agree. The only new comment I might add is that the unsung hero in all of this is Richard Brundage, whose nuanced portrayal of Buddy blends equal parts sweetness and menace with deft, and who provides an aching flow of innocence and Weltschmerz to counterpoint and draw out the character of Daphne/Britney.

Kudos to all involved in, "You Are Alone."

Good show, really good acting, and the director takes us swimming through his storyline in an interesting, unpredictable way, especially since, essentially, it's two people in a room. It doesn't race through like many modern films, but doesn't drag, either. Bohl is flippant enough to believe her in the "now" of her character, which is still involved and not going back on her 'career' choices - so it is believable without the need for her to show us a deep, self-examination of her soul...Brundage has the delicate balance of weight, innocence, meekness, and class to pull off 'Buddy' very well. A bit grainy on the film quality, but it fits the tone of the story. Could use a little polishing on the hair and makeup end of things, but definitely worth watching.

I wanted to like You Are Alone as I found the subject interesting, but the lines were either poorly written or poorly delivered, and possibly both. All I could think the entire time was that it sounded like a table read. The actors weren't believable as real people, and in a story like this that's a must have. Additionally, I found the ending completely unbelievable. Not sure where all the 9 and 10-rated reviews are coming from. Not a chance.

If you're tired by the same repetitive, unintelligent material that the mainstream movie industry releases, you'll enjoy "You Are Alone". It is thought provoking, well shot and riveting.

Without revealing anything that you don't find out in the first few minutes of the movie, this is the story of a young white high school girl from an upper middle class environment who is working as an escort and is discovered by her neighbor. The vast majority of the movie occurs in a hotel room where he hired her to come.

Through their discussion, you explore two shifting views of prostitution, depression, loneliness. Yet the movie is not depressing. It talks about dark things without being depressing.

As a viewer, your emotions and preconceived notions are moved around, but gently. You come out of it with a lot to think about. I like that in a movie.

You Are Alone is a beautiful, almost delicate film, smart directed, crisply written, with two complex and riveting performances, and a twist of an ending that no one will see coming, but will make you want to see the film a second time to go back and catch up on all the clues you misread.

The story, about a highschool girl who drowns her depression and awkwardness by working a few hours a week as a $500 an hour "schoolgirl" escort, and the depressed next-door neighbor who discovers her secret and hires her for an afternoon call in a downtown New Haven hotel, features breathtaking performances from both Jessica Bohl, as the girl, and Richard Brundage, as her neighbor.

Bohl as Daphne gives a breakthrough performance on par with Maggie Gyllenhaal in Secretary. She so captures a teenager's angst of growing into her own skin, and when she talks about always being in control, you start to realize she's not in control at all, but in danger of going over the deep end, which I guess in a way she does.

Brundage as Buddy is depressed, angry, heartbroken, a shell of a man. But it isn't until the film's startling conclusion that you grasp a full comprehension of his pain.

After a very brief opening segment, which will hook most independent film lovers, and have the religious right running towards the exits, we are brought into the hotel room. At first you're not sure about these people, or the film-making style. Shaky, annoying...like the characters. Until you realize their back story, told in short flashbacks. They're confrontational at first for a reason, and so is the camera. But as they open up, as the story settles down, likewise, so does the camera. And, I don't know, 20 minutes in, give or take, you find yourself unable to take your eyes away from the screen.

Having just seen the world premiere screening at the Brooklyn Film Fest -- where the director asked the audience if anyone expected the ending and not one person answered yes – I almost wish the film were already on video so I could watch it again. Because thinking back now on some of the conversations in the film, particularly a very candid dialog regarding fantasy and climax, I really thought things were going in a very different direction. But I realize now so much of their conversation meant something completely different than what I imagined. I need to see it again!!! But as dark and sexual as much of the talk is, blunt to say the least, I found myself laughing more than I might have expected at some of its candor, which definitely falls into the "things we think, but lack the nerve to say out loud" category. It's very blunt, especially when you realize so much of it has a completely different meaning. Some of it will make you uncomfortable, especially if you're watching You Are Alone with a partner. You'll definitely have something to talk about – perhaps argue about – afterwards. Perhaps it should come with a warning: You SHOULD be alone when watching! The music is amazing. I would have come home, and purchased the soundtrack at my favorite online music store if I could have. The film looks as good as anything shot on film. After the screening director Gorman Bechard was asked what sort of process he used to get the digital footage to look so good. His answer: none. They couldn't afford it.

I have to give Bechard credit. I am a big fan of his two shorts, The Pretty Girl and Objects in the Mirror, but even they could not have prepared me for the complexities and surprises of this film.

To everyone involved: bravo.

Even IF a teen were willing to agree to such a request... could the young person do it? Even the hardest adult... very , very, unlikely.

And the very real risks to someone doing such a thing? Can such a coward of a man exist, unable to use his own finger? And instead, extremely unsensitively put a huge life-long load on someone else?

And why the very long sequence of interactions, and conversations we were put through? Makes no sense.

So improbable, this story is quite a turn off.

I caught this at the Chicago IndieFest and have to say YOU ARE ALONE is a lot funnier than the other reviews and even the website would lead you to think. Not HA HA Wedding Crashers' funny, but sick, twisted, I can't believe she just said that but it's so damn true funny.

Jessica Bohl, who deservedly won Best Actress, is amazing to watch. There's never a moment when you think oh, I'm watching a movie and she's an actress. She's too damn real for words.

In fact there's 2 scenes that I'm still giggling over, and I won't give them away, but in one she's in the bathroom talking about how much she gets paid for performing a certain service and how "awesome" it is. (I almost wonder how many people in the audience are secretly thinking the same thing!!!)

In another she talks about a teenagers definition of "sex" versus an adults, and if it isn't the truest dialog I've heard in a movie in a long time, I don't know what is.

Jessica Bohl plays Daphne, the sexually precocious suburban teenager struggling with the hell of high school. Daphne's neighbor is Buddy (Richard Brundage), a depressed middle-aged man still angry over loosing his wife. Daphne is attracted to world of prostitution because it promises to cure her of barely legal boredom and loneliness. Once Buddy strips Daphne of her secret, he hires her to help him accept the loss of his wife. The entire film takes place at the Hotel Duncan, yet details of each character's history are exposed through dialogue and flashbacks. Their appointment climaxes with the story's concluding twist.

Both actors truly understand and become their particular character, delivering a convincing, sincere performance. Their on-screen chemistry, critical to the entire film, is genuine.

The film's dialogue is natural, real to life. The writer, Gorman Bechard, undoubtedly did his homework because all references are industry and character-age appropriate. Daphne is intelligent, yet clearly still an eighteen year old. Buddy may be middle-aged, but still not the hackneyed naïve type normally depicted in film. Daphne and Buddy's conversation primarily deals with their despair and frustration with life, but is still comical at the right times. Although the general mood is very relaxed, the dialogue has its own vivacity, forcing the audience to become empathetic toward the character's conditions and uncomfortable at their straightforward vulgarities.

The incredible soundtrack truly captures the essence of the film. Each track commands sentiment, actually contributing to the scenes and characters. Even existing independently from the film, the compilation truly expresses You Are Alone's central theme-- loneliness.

You Are Alone is a less conventional piece that deals with of notions typically not spoken. Definitely worth seeing… it's the sort of thought provoking film that forces you to question your own threshold of loneliness.

Striking, intelligent micro budget film about loneliness, as captured during an afternoon encounter between a Yale bound high school senior who's a prostitute in her spare time, and an older, depressed neighbor.

Both the film and the two generally excellent lead performances (by unknowns Jessica Bohl and Richard Brundage) do get stagy at times. The film takes place largely in one room. And I wish I didn't see the twist ending coming. In fact, I sort of wish it wasn't there at all. While it almost works, I didn't think the film needed it, and it felt tacked on, as if from another, more conventionally 'dramatic' film.

The film is at it's best when it's dealing in simple emotional honesty, and the complexity of these characters lives. That's where this film shines – in avoiding the clichés we've come to expect in two characters like this. She may be living a dark existence, but she's getting something from it too. He's a man who can't let himself even indulge in fantasy, and it's part of why he's so blocked as a human being.

For a film that's all about sex and sexuality, it's surprisingly chaste, while still having uncomfortable erotic overtones and questions – both for the characters and the audience. Are we sick for having moments when this young girl turns us on? Is she sick for enjoying that power?

I also appreciated that the dialogue is often elliptical, and that silence is as important as words.

Not quite a great film, but an impressive effort to do something original.

Some people are born with mourning souls with their song sung singularly until they encounter another soul as tortured and/or as bitterly sweetly beautiful as their own and an unusual magic happens. YOU ARE ALONE is a brutally honest look into two tortured souls that intertwine for a moment of understanding and oneness only to be torn apart by the differences in the oneness between they're pain. Death is explored figuratively and literally. It is what happens when ones soul is dead or similarly too alive, too awake to reality. It is the life NOT which you imagined behind the eyes of passer-by's. This film explores the aching pain in us all, the frown beneath the cheery facade, the ache below. The ugly instinctual animalistic thoughts and acts become honest and matter of fact and then Bechard sprinkles a dash of unexpected innocence and beauty into the mix knowing both linger in us all. Bechard, the writer, is a expert observer of the human condition and because of his non judgmental attitude presents life in a light we often shield our eyes from but yearn to see and understand. He, as director, focuses on the nuances of the actors spirit that shines through the character they're playing to the actors own personal familiarity with the emotions brought on by each situation. This is the most accurately written and directed character portrayal of a man and woman's experience together I have encountered as of yet, even though the two characters encounter is probably not the "normal" encounter.

The soundtrack encapsulates in each songs lyrics what the characters would let their hearts spill out if able and strong enough. It is each characters real voice sung through the beauty, pain, talent, and emotional intelligence of emerging indie artists ready to explode onto the alternative music market. The perfect soundtrack for those of us with issues - those of us who admit that we have issues and those of us that hide it.

I always enjoy exploring the darker sides of life with Mr. Bechard's both fascinatingly creative and realistic view of life and the characters that revolve within it.

This movie is like Happiness meets Lost in Translation with a Sixth Sense ending (or maybe a Crying Game surprise), and the best soundtrack I've probably ever heard...if that all make sense.

The first 30 seconds pretty much tells you you're in for a twisted ride. (I was surprised no one walked out right away during the Brooklyn premiere.) But from there, the film settles down into a talk-fest between two really damaged people, Daphne and Buddy.

They're lonely, mess-up, and boy do they talk about sex. Daphne brings to life her most interesting tales of escorting, some are quite funny (Mr. Chang) some disturbing (the Harlan scenes with music that tells us what we see might now be what's going on, or what Daphne is really feeling), and because I have a friend who used to escort, I might add, most seem quite real.

You Are Alone is multi-layered and mostly brilliant. Okay, maybe a couple minutes less of the talking, and I don't know that we'd have missed anything.

Then again, I need to see it again knowing the ending.

I like this movie.

(The director asked people in the Brooklyn audience to write a review on IMDb because a lot of people read them. Request granted.)

I saw the film at the Brooklyn International Film Festival (World Premiere).

A haunting, intimate portrait of Loneliness, and the repercussions of letting it grow and turn into something darker.

The acting of the two leads (Jessica Bohl & Richard Brundage) is excellent, and makes one wish you had met these characters before they became so damaged.

Reminded me in theme of the works of Atom Egoyan (Exotica) and Raymond Carver (Where I'm Calling From).

The Soundtrack (Tywanna Jo Baskette, Crooked Fingers) is excellent and reinforces moments in the film without drawing attention to itself.

Highly recommend the Film and the Soundtrack.

The actors in this dark film are truly believable and well cast. The quality of the camera work makes you feel as if you are there The screenplay is intense and does not wander. The plot is one that makes you want to watch it a second time from the new perspective gained by the ending. We showed this film to a small group of patrons at Gadsden's Center for Cultural Arts. After the film, ever patron was eager to discuss the film and one person called me the next day to say that they were still "bothered". While we put an 18 and up age restriction on the film, I would watch the film with a youth group as it is a very real portrayal of an ugly situation and sets the stage for great conversation.

I have a hard time putting into words just how wonderful this was. Once in a while you see a film that just sticks with you. "You Are Alone" is that movie (for me). The film is constantly in my head and in my heart. I replay the scenes mentally every day and analyze them and go through the emotions all over again, as if I am seeing it for the first time.

There is nothing I did not like about the movie. Amazing soundtrack!!! The ending was perfect. Very emotionally stirring!!! It was compelling and riveting.

I adored Jessica Bohl and her performance was the greatest I have ever witnessed. I admired Brittany's strength (what a strong woman).

The tag line is "When your darkest moments come to life". We never know what we are capable of doing. Everyone says oh I would never do that, when really we have no idea what we would do in a situation. We are very capable of anything and this movies delves straight into that subject. The honesty of the movie may be my absolute favorite part.

Thank you Gorman Becherd for a perfect piece of art!!!!

One of the BEST movies I have seen in a very long time. Bechard has a way of looking at things that is completely unique and this movie does not disappoint.

This movie has you guessing throughout, and with the seemingly taboo topics addressed it keeps you glued to the screen. There are no bad guys or good guys, Bechard makes sure of that. The characters are so perfectly complex you feel for each of them, you care about what they have been through.

Bechard's use an attention to details is unmatched in this world of "FAST FOOD MOVIES" and while some of the topics may make some uncomfortable - you love the feeling it gives you.

I have heard it said too often that there are no NEW stories to tell. Thank you Gorman Bechard for proving that false.

Run, don't walk, to see this movie.

~Watched It By Chance Not Expecting Much... But The Way It Made Me Feel Left Me Speechless... Sooo Deep & True~

Excellent thought provoking , a bit naughty , a real fantasy type film

This film is Engaging and Complex while maintaining simple beauty .Our two characters come together sharing the base of curiosity and loneliness, but it is a springboard for learning these people, they 're life styles and pasts which support this.

The two lead actors (Bohl, Brundruge) were in the moment as any two actors I have ever seen. %100 believable, they transport the audience seemingly effortlessly, into their world. The actors' seamless acting teamed with Bechard's Beautiful, realistic dialog and his truthful direction drives the story forward into a striking and moving finale.This film is visual treat- soft ,increasing the intensity of The story. The soundtrack serenades the viewer, soothing yet drawing out the emotional content of the film. I find this project to be nothing short of a masterpiece. intriguing.intense.