It is one week from the Ohio Democratic primary, which is one of the most important primaries because normally it puts the winner in a position to win the party and thus in the running for president in the general election. Mike Morris (George Clooney) is a Democrat governor who is looking to win this primary. Along his sides are his senior campaign manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his press secretary Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling).

An example of how brilliant Stephen is, he comes up with a plan that would mandate 18 year olds to do 2 years of service of some kind whether that be in the army or the Peace Corps and in return their college will be paid for. They know that is a bold plan to announce but they also know the voting demographic will be for it since it does not affect them and the age group it does affect is too young to even vote.

Stephen makes the mistake of agreeing to meet with Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti), who is the running mates campaign manager. Tom tries to lure Stephen into jump ship from his current position and work for his guy Senator Pullman. Stephen declines and that is when Tom lets him know that the race is much closer than he thinks. Tom informs him that they are in position to capture North Carolina’s delegates from a deal with the governor.

Stephen lets his team know of the situation and Paul comes up with a plan. Walk away from Ohio immediately and take a loss and head over to North Carolina to offer the governor a higher position if Morris is elected for his endorsement vote. Morris does not go for it and decides to stick it out in Ohio.

Meanwhile, a young intern named Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood) takes interest in Stephen. They meet up outside of work where it is admitted that she has wanted him for some time now. He knows that they must keep this a secret but what he does not know is that he will soon discover a secret that could end the campaign in a heartbeat.

The ensemble cast is comprised of a collection of well-seasoned actors and actresses. A group that you would expect great performances from and they fulfill those expectations. With a cast of; George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood and Marisa Tomei, you just cannot go wrong in terms of performance.

Although the entire cast was great, the obvious stand out was Gosling. Watching his character development was my favorite quality of the film. You see Stephen changed from a guy who just wanted to win the polls to a guy that just wanted to get ahead in power.

If there is one thing you take away from The Ides of March it is that all politicians are dirty, even the ones you think are the good guys. Scandals are just the nature of being in politics, being under the microscope on everything you say and do does not help. It is nothing that most people did not already know which is why the storyline is fairly compelling but ultimately one that is not hard to predict how the scene would end once it had started.

Adam is not risk taker, when the crosswalk blinks do not walk, he stays put, even when no vehicles are to be seen. The 27 year old does not drive because it is the 5th leading cause of death. So it is ironic when after going to the doctor for some minor back symptoms, Adam is diagnosed with a rare form of spinal cancer, rendering his chances of death 50/50.

Adam gets along with his girlfriend well enough but at the same time you can tell that something is missing from that relationship. He does not realize it at first. It is brought to his attention when two fellow treatment patients question the fact she will not even step inside the hospital. However, it becomes even more evident when she does not answer her phone and shows up an hour late for picking him up.

If it were up to his best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen), Adam would be using his cancer to his advantage for picking up new girls. In fact, Kyle picks up someone at a bookstore by telling her that he is taking care of his dying friend. On their date, Kyle sees Adam’s girlfriend kissing another guy and even snapped a picture on his phone for proof. At the end of the date, Kyle rushes to Adam’s to show him the picture. Needless to say, their relationship came to an end.

Even though Kyle’s repeated attempts to set Adam up with girls have failed, he ends up meeting someone on his own. Turns out it is his 24 year old student therapist that is helping him through treatment. Since he recently broke up with his girlfriend, she offers him a ride home and will not take no for an answer. The first thing he notices about her car is that it is very messy which she insists on him not to judge her for it. The slightly odd scene turns cute when he demands her to pull over so that he can throw away her trash in the car that he could not stand any longer.

Just as things are starting to look up for Adam, one of the patients he got close to passed away. That served as a harsh reminder to him that he may die at any moment. Adam takes his frustrations out on everyone around him; his therapist, Kyle and even his Mom. Up until now he has taken the cancer news fairly lightly so it was only a matter of time until the frustrations settled in.

Not many actors today can make me laugh out loud as much as Seth Rogen does. In most of his films I find myself laughing even when I am watching it by myself (which is the ultimate test), this film was no exception. He did a great job at not dominating the film too much as the supporting actor. Granted, he did play his usual role in the film.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s performance felt effortless and brilliant. The awkward romantic scenes between Anna Kendrick and him were outstanding. Most of the film he plays it cool but he shows his range of emotions by the end, particularly well in one “freak out” scene. His career is really starting to take off after recently doing, (500) Days of Summer, Inception and now currently working on Christopher Nolan’s long awaited The Dark Knight Rises.

After watching the trailer for 50/50 when it first came out, I jokingly said it had a 50/50 shot at being good. That depended on which way director Jonathan Levine approached the film. Luckily, he balanced the right amount of comedy and drama together in a very realistic manner without all the pitfalls of a stereotypical dramedy. The situations that Adam gets into seem to all be completely natural, it did not suffer from a cheesy movie-like moment. I was kind of hoping “Banana Pancakes” by Jack Johnson played for the final scene instead of Pearl Jam’s “Yellow Ledbetter”, if you saw the film you know why.

Nick Halsey (Will Ferrell) is an alcoholic sales representative who just got fired from his job. But his problems do not end right there. When he arrives home, after making a stop for alcohol of course, he finds that all of his possessions are out on the front lawn of his home. Attached to the front door is a note from his wife that explains their relationship is over. The spare key that is normally hidden under the plant was removed and the locks on the door have been changed.

Having nowhere else to sleep Nick decides to sleep in a chair of his on the front lawn. Apparently sleeping in his car was an afterthought. Upon waking up from water sprinklers he notices a woman across the street moving in. He greets her and explains to her the reason that all of his stuff on his lawn is because he is having a yard sale. He asks her if she would watch his stuff so he could go to the store but she is not able to. So he gets a neighborhood kid to watch his stuff while he goes to the liquor store to get more alcohol.

Not being able to find his keys to the car, he borrows the kid’s bike. It is at the store that he discovers that his wife has cancelled the joint checking account. Luckily for him, he still has cash for his purchase. On the bike ride home he runs into a person repossessing his car. We still have not seen his wife at this point (and we never do) but from the note we know she left him because of his drinking problem and also because he cheated on her.

Nick is not very determined to do anything but sit around and drink beer on his lawn. A neighbor ends up calling the cops on him but Nick is in luck because his AA sponsor is a detective. He pushes Nick into packing his things up otherwise he will have to arrest him. The detective helps him out by telling him that he can hold a yard sale for 5 days to buy some time. So turns out he is going to have that yard sale after all.

There is a pivotal scene in the film is when Nick is preaching about fighting back when times are tough, it is then that he realizes that he is not fighting back right now in his life. It becomes apparent to Nick that he is currently following his drunken father’s footsteps when he watches an old childhood video where his father is drinking. You get the sense that Nick is a good person deep down and really does want to do something with his life now.

Many feel like this is Will Ferrell’s first true dramatic role considering Stranger Than Fiction was more of a dramedy than anything. It must be refreshing for him to do such a different role than what he is used to playing. Ferrell is surprisingly good at playing a low key average-man and he even makes it look natural.

Everything Must Go had opportunities to be very cliché but it managed to avoid most of them thus making it a little more enjoyable than your average film. The film is depressing from the very beginning and does not budge too much from being a downer but that by no means is a bad thing. It tackles a dark subject of alcoholism and captures it well. Not losing hope is the theme of the film and I would reiterate that for people watching it as it does tend to get better after the halfway point.

Many movies tackle the subject of alcoholism in many different ways, but few feature an alcohol abuse center the way it works in real life.

Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) is a high school wrestling coach for a losing team. He is a lawyer with his own practice but work is slow. He is so stressed out because of the lack of work he sometimes collapses while jogging. Needless to say, things are not looking up for him.

Looking to seize an opportunity at work he becomes a legal guardian for one of his clients named Leo (Burt Young), who has dementia in order to gain some extra income. While looking after Leo’s house, Mike finds Leo’s 16 year old grandson Kyle (Alex Shaffer), who randomly shows up at the home. He has never met his grandfather before but since he no longer gets along with his mother he had no choice but to flee.

Turns out that Kyle’s mother Cindy (Melanie Lynskey) is in drug rehab and never really provided a stable household for Kyle to live in. That might explain why Kyle is a foul mouthed chain-smoker at the age of 16. Although Kyle may seem like a punk on the outside, deep down he is a gentle soul.

Kyle comes to wrestling practice with Mike and asks if he could join. Mike asks him if he has ever wrestled before and Kyle causally says, “Yeah.” It turns out Kyle is fantastic at wrestling and is easily the best one on the team. Mike knows that Kyle is just what the team needs in order to turn their losing season around.

At his first match on the team, Kyle dominates his opponent with ease. His teammates are thankful to have the newcomer bring such success to the team. Kyle also bonds quickly with Mike’s family and soon becomes part of it. Even Mike’s wife, who was a little reluctant with the idea of Kyle at first, now thinks of Kyle as her own son.

With each match the team seems to be getting better and better now that they have Kyle. For the first time in a long time, things are looking up for Mike. Extra income from Leo and Kyle is vastly improving the wresting team’s record. Kyle is very happy to be wrestling again and has even quit smoking. Everything is swell until Kyle’s mother Cindy comes for him.

Cindy claims she came back to take care of Leo but made it obvious she just came back for his money. When she threatens to take Mike to court over it he comes up with a deal, saying he will take care of Leo for free and send her the monthly commission as long as she leaves Kyle alone. But Cindy now wants her son too, even if it is against his will.

Paul Giamatti is fantastic as always, playing the likeable but slightly flawed character of Mike, a family man who seizes opportunities when they arise. Amy Ryan is not on the screen as much as I would have liked, playing the role of a mother not at all like the one in Gone Baby Gone. This time she is a loving mother that thinks the world of her family and does it very convincingly.

Alex Shaffer was very natural playing the role of Kyle but after doing some research it is easy to understand why. At the age 17 Alex Shaffer won the New Jersey State Wrestling Championship in real life. He felt right at home when he shot for the legs and hop around the wrestling mat. There are only a couple of dialog scenes where you could tell he had never acted before.

Thomas McCarthy has used actor Bobby Cannavale in two of his films and in both he plays nearly the same character. The characters he plays are so socially desperate to be a part of someone else’s life because they are bored with their own. In The Station Agent that character was Joe, in Win Win it is Terry. Terry comes to Mike’s wrestling practice because he just wants to see this Kyle kid wrestle and perhaps trying to fill a void in his life from a recent divorce he had. He is excellent in both films providing comedic relief at the same time being the third wheel.

Win Win is the kind of film that will not blow you away, but is still enjoyable. It is well-acted and well told; even though the story is ultimately too safe which results in a warm family film that is worth watching once. However, compared to McCarthy’s The Station Agent this film was a bit of a let down.

The film takes place in the slums of Rio de Janerio where they do not have electricity or paved roads. City of God is a ghetto for the homeless and poor where crime and drugs frequent the streets. But miracles still happen in the City Of God.

The opening scene begins with members of a gang chasing an escaped chicken down the street. Chasing the same chicken is our narrator named Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues). The chicken stops as it is trapped in the middle between Rocket and the gang. But just like the chicken, Rocket finds himself in the middle between the gang and the police.

City of God is a film told through flashbacks so the beginning of the film is really the end. The camera pans around Rocket and we are taken to when he was just a little boy playing soccer with his friends. This begins the first chapter of the story where Rocket tells us about the Tender Trio.

The Tender Trio was a group of hoodlum thieves formed by Shaggy, Clipper and Goose that holds up local businesses. Goose is Rocket’s older brother and even though most of the younger boys idolized the trio, Rocket admitted he never had the courage to follow his brother’s footsteps.

A young boy named Lil Dice tags along with the Trio in a motel robbery but they tell the boy he is far too young to do anything but serve as a look out for the police. This ended up being their last heist even though they managed to escape with lots of money. Following the chase from the cops a couple of the members had a change of heart. Clipper went a religious route, Goose started a real job, Lil Dice disappeared, leaving Shaggy as the only one that still had interest in continuing on.

The film states, “Hoods never stop, they just take a break” which rings true when Lil Dice shows up later after hiding for a while and eventually gets what he wanted since a child, to become the boss of the City of God. In order to achieve the rise in power he must kill off his rivals, which is obviously not a problem for him.

Lil Dice changes his nickname to Lil Ze as his power ascends to one of the most feared and dangerous gangster in the City of God. His childhood sidekick, Benny, has never left his side. Even though the two were always close together their personalities could not be further apart. Lil Ze held no remorse from his trigger-happy finger where Benny was as kind as any hoodlum could possibly be.

In the 70’s Rocket finally got his first camera that he so desperately wanted all of his life. He fell in love with a girl who was currently dating someone else. He went as far as scoring drugs for her and one day Angelica broke up with her boyfriend. Rocket had a chance to make his move but ultimately she went for Benny.

Rocket went to work long hours in the supermarket to pay off a newer camera. He called it the sucker’s life. That did not last long though because his boss thought he was in a gang and fired him. He began to wonder if it did not pay to be honest. Like his brother before him, he began to flirt with crime but he was never successful at it. He was too nice to ever go through with it.

Rocket never wanted to be a hoodlum or a policeman when he grew up because he was afraid of getting shot. Goose always told him to study and the only reason he is a hoodlum is because he has no brains. Rocket wanted to be a photographer and would soon get his chance to become one. Although he did not escape the getting shot at part.

Rocket gets a job with a newspaper as a delivery man. He slowly begins to make friends in the photo department. Lil Ze asked Rocket to take a photo of him and his gang however the pictures get into the wrong hands at the newspaper and eventually ends up on the front page. He fears that the gang will want to kill him as the picture was meant only for the gang to have.

On one hand he is fears his life from the gang on the other hand he is happy that he is finally the photographer he has always wanted to be. The story comes full circle to the beginning of the film where Lil Ze’s gang and Rocket meet again after chasing a chicken. When the police show up it presents an opportunity of a life time to snap photos of the situation.

The cinematography was breathtaking. From the opening shot of chasing a chicken throughout the small city roads to the film turned to stills from a camera near the end. The way it used orange and brown filters during the 70’s era was brilliant and fitting. City of God received a well-deserved Best Cinematography Oscar nomination at the 2004 Academy Awards, although somehow Master and Commander took home the award. The film was also up for Best Director, Best Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay.

In what I thought originally might be a downfall of the film, the abundance of subplots and characters that enter the story as fast as they leave, ends up being the purpose and main theme of the film. For every person that dies, there is another to take their place. There will always be something to fight about and always someone to kill.

City of God is both a shocking and inspiring story about life in the crime filled slums of Rio de Janerio. It is often compared to some of the best mob films out there and it can easily hang with, if not surpass them. It is a powerful film that at times you may want to look away but it is so compelling your eyes cannot.

Felix Bush (Robert Duvall) is a 1930’s Tennessee hermit who has lived on his own isolated property for the past 38 years. We get a sense of his personality when he puts up a sign that reads, “No Damn Trespassing, Beware of Mule.” He lives alone, unless you count his mule, which serves as both his best friend and transportation.

Most people of the town nearby know of Felix, he is the recipient of many name-calling and rumors of him run rampant. The opening scene of the film gives us the likely reason why people talk down about the hermit. The scene at the beginning is of a farmhouse on fire and a man running from it, which we presume is Felix.

For obvious reasons, Felix does not venture into town very often. However, he does make an exception to pay respects to his fellow hermit friend who recently passed away. On his visit he gets into a confrontation with a local. The local harasses Felix buy calling him names and throwing rocks at his mule.

Frank Quinn (Bill Murray) is a desperate funeral home owner that is just waiting for people to die, for his business to pick up. Because of the position his business is in, he transforms his assistant, Buddy (Lucas Black), into a salesman to generate new business. Buddy suggests meeting up with Felix to discuss funeral arrangements.

The two go to Felix’s place, who not surprisingly, was upset at first that there was an intruder on his property. As Buddy sits down to talk with him, it becomes clear that Felix is very curious as to what other people have been spreading rumors about. Of course, Buddy did not want to bring up the rumors but Felix insisted firmly. One such rumor was that Felix killed some people in a fist fight. To which is response was, “Is that all?”

When showing someone around his property they mention the beautiful scenery of trees, which his response is, “When you leave things alone, they know what to do.” Without knowing it, Felix metaphorically stated what his entire life has been like up until that point. It was blatant enough of an analogy that even a character in the film pointed it out. Apparently, the director did not want you to miss that connection.

The next day Felix shows up at the funeral home unannounced. Clearly, Frank is very nervous perhaps mostly because he is face to face with the hermit for the first time, but he may also just be excited that he finally has a customer. Felix lists off some arrangements he would like including the peculiar request that he wants to be alive at the funeral. He goes on to reveal why the odd request was made, he wants the people that have stories about him to attend.

Felix then sets out to find a Reverend to speak at his funeral and he has someone in mind. He meets with Reverend Charlie Jackson (Bill Cobbs) who seems to have not only known Felix for a very long time but may be the only person that knows what happened on the night of the farmhouse fire. Jackson asks Felix if he has asked forgiveness to the Lord for what he did, which his answer is no. Felix pleads that he has punished himself by living completely alone for the past 40 years but even he knows that is not enough to make up for what he did, whatever that was.

There is no doubt that Felix has some skeletons in the closest. We have no idea if he is a murderer, criminal or something even worse. But we do know Felix wants to set the record straight on what he did. His intentions shift from wanting to hear what other people’s stories about him, to him telling his story to others, the real story about him. We as viewers are just as interested in hearing the truth as the hundreds that gathered to hear it at his funeral party.

Get Low definitely benefits from having two well-seasoned actors. It is likely that both Robert Duvall and Bill Murray sit on most critics’ favorite modern-day actors list. Each is perfectly casted for their role. Duvall masterfully takes the lead role but is careful not to completely steal the show as Murray entertains us with his role as funeral director. Getting to watch both of them performance on the same screen is a treat.

First-time feature director Aaron Schneider gives us a wonderfully shot film, but it should come to little surprise since most of his work previously was cinematography. The 1930’s set looked authentic from wardrobes to interiors of buildings. Luckily, a good portion of Get Low is outside so we get to see beautiful shots of the Tennessee landscape, particularly the scene where he walks through the woods.

There was a lot of build up to the speech that he gives, but once that card is revealed there is not much left in the hand. Unfortunately, it did fail to fully deliver the emotional impact it intended to. But I still think it carried some feeling, we have Duvall to thank for that. I felt like the conclusion was not as good as the entire thing leading up to it, perhaps keeping the idea of not knowing what exactly happened would have been better.

Get Low started off going in an irony direction with the hermit coming to town and wanting to be alive for his own funeral. But it switches to more of a serious and emotional direction about midway through. While the conclusion may have missed a little emotionally, it does not take away from the fact that this is a great film to see.

Becky Lewis (Kelly-Ann Tursi) works by giving a guy any fantasy he wants for an hour. This does, however, exclude acts that involve sex or kissing. You can tell she is a strong minded person who from time to time puts too much trust in people. She has been taking care of herself since she was 15.

She tends to only dream of flashbacks as a child where she was abused. That is likely attributed to her being so depressed. And since she basically sells herself for her job, these are reasons why she has such a hard time sleeping at night.

Soon a new customer finds out about her services from her website and suddenly takes interest in Becky. His requests are not typical of the other customers she is used to. He mostly just wants to talk and spend time with her. It’s not long before she starts opening up to him emotionally and gains some trust in him.

In one scene she bursts in tears and proclaims it will take two years for her to save up for what she thinks is the only way to make the big bucks, real estate investments. It is the first time you see why she is doing what she is. She has a goal and is determined to reach it. And he looks to be someone that can help her along with way.

The film kind of passes by for the first hour before the story starts to get fairly interesting. I feel like it could have progressed faster than it did. The acting in One Hour Fantasy Girl was a little disappointing. The actors failed to deliver their lines with much conviction. The best quality about the film was probably the writing minus the lack of a compelling ending.

One Hour Fantasy Girl is an indie film that has potential. The character development was not complete and took too long to reach. However, the overall idea behind the film is interesting and a bit sad since it was based off a true story. With a few tweaks it could have came out great. I cannot recommend this film to most, unless that is you are a diehard fan of low budget indie films and can appreciate the effort by producer John Paul Rice and director Edgar Bravo.

It starts off with Linas in a relationship that is less than perfect. It is clear that he likes her but unfortunately for him, she is already in another relationship. As if that were not bad enough, the friend he is staying with seems to be fed up with him. Evident that the living situation is far from ideal, he seeks to start over by making a cross-country trip to New York.

The main purpose of Bass Ackwards is Linas searching for affection and attention which is reiterated throughout the film. This is first seen through his girlfriend in the beginning then through his temporary job working with llamas. He demands rhetorically that the llama must say it loves him before feeding it. All he wants is love and to the point of near suicide.

Although I understand the film is about the journey, it gets repetitive to see the same basic shot of the VW van he is in coasting along the interstate over and over. They add up to be a lot of what you see during his trip. Cutting out at least half of those cuts may have kept Bass Ackwards more interesting.

Another thing that bothered me a little bit was when he called his dad from his cell phone to pull a prank on him, his dad did not seem to know who it was. I know it is a small deal but obviously his dad’s cell phone would have recognized the number, as it did several times later.

The film briefly picks up when he wakes up from sleeping in his van to a man tapping on his window. The man named Jim (Jim Fletcher) asks if he could come in and sit in the front seat. He obliges and the two become fairly close as he allows his new friend along on the trip.

That character had potential and could have really taken the story in a completely different direction but it was a little short lived. Jim leaves Linas after the two seemed to have bonded well. Linas does run into a couple minor issues after that, mostly running out of gas multiple times before finally running into Jim again near the end.

Towards the very end Linas, now reunited with Jim again, runs into his girlfriend he had left behind. He is ultimately forced between his new-found friend Jim or his old girlfriend. It is then we see if the journey across the country has helped him get over her or if it has made him miss her even more.

I am always impressed when the main actor is also the director and in this case, also a co-writer. However, even with this admiration, I still cannot recommend this film to most. The camera work is well done and the acting was not poor but this indie film as a whole was lackluster. It was an adventure that at times could have went somewhere great but ended up being mostly dull.

As the title suggests, Bob Maconel (Christian Slater) plays a quiet man who is an introvert in every sense of the word. He is a loner who works at an unrewarding job where he despises nearly everyone who works with him. He boss humiliates and takes advantage of him. Maconel brings a gun with him to work with the intention of shooting his co-workers, although never follows through with it. One day a colleague has a breakdown and does what he has always wanted to do, shoots a few colleagues. Thanks to him being armed himself he takes out the shooter in what looks like an ultimate display of courage and honor.

Everyone now considers him a hero in the community and in the work place. His boss promotes him to the VP of Creative Thinking, replacing a victim of the shooting, Vanessa. Vanessa is quite possibly the only employee that he liked. She is now a quadriplegic from a bullet to the spine. Maconel visits her in the hospital and she asks him to assist her in committing suicide as she feels she has no reason to live anymore. Deep down he struggles with fulfilling that request or to care for her.

Although, they do touch on it a little bit, I couldn’t help but wonder why more people didn’t question the fact he had a gun to begin with. I can understand at first being perhaps overshadowed by the heroism but I would think it would be something not to overlook. That bothered me a little.

It seems to me that He Was A Quiet Man was nearly two separate films, the first half and the second half. I’m not even talking about the storyline either, I mean in terms of quality of the film itself. The first half starts out pretty rough with continuity errors and awkward acting. Thankfully, the film does pick up and gets on the right track later.

An impressive feat that the film was actually shot in just 21 days but I feel like it was better off as a short-story rather than a full length feature. The visual graphics at times were pretty impressive but in others were a little too amateurish. Some un-needed graphics were in there too. Specifically, when he is sitting around a fire, the fire was fake rather than using a real one. Also the airplanes that flew over were CGI and looked decent but for how close they were to them, you would think there would be a little more wind produced from them.

Christian Slater played Bob Maconel very well and by the end you see a transformation in character. His paranoia and madness was believable. It was hard to tell in the beginning if he was going to be able to pull off this character or not, I think he succeeded.

The cinematography in He Was A Quiet Man was impressive enough to where I think it should have been up for more awards. It did win Best Feature Cinematography at the Newport Beach Film Festival but was not even nominated at Sundance, Independent Spirit, or Cannes. Through unique camera angles and usage it was able to convey the mood of the film. Using a fixed fisheye camera on Maconel as he walks through the office gives you a paranoid and claustrophobic feel.

If you are one to turn off films half-way through if it is not to your liking, you may find yourself doing so. Fortunately, I do not fall into that category, although there has been plenty of times I have wanted to before. I say fortunately because all is not lost and there are some quality moments in there.

Writer Davy Mitchell (Brian Geraghty) is out on the road promoting his book with his brother. One night back at the motel room Davy is alone and gets a random phone call from a mysterious woman named Nicole. They have a long intimate conversation that is just what the lonely writer need. This fantasy of a girlfriend continues as they begin to talk over the phone on a daily basis.

About half way into the film Davy admits that he hasn’t been in too many relationships before to Nicole. He also confesses that the relationships that he has been in do not last because he never lives up to what they expect him to be. Although we can tell that his character is shy in the beginning, he acknowledges it by saying that he would like to be with other girls but never does anything about it.

It is clear that Davy want this relationship to be more than just phone sex. She refuses to give out her number and demands that she just calls him. That is something he tries to change a few times but she doesn’t budge. I believe that this is the closest thing he has had to a real relationship in a long time.

As with real relationships conflicts and hardships arise and do so here as well. Davy runs into a old girlfriend that he was once into at a party and he forced to make a decision on which relationship to pursue. Not wanting to hide anything, he tells Nicole about the situation.

The first half of Easier with Practice starts off relatively slow and I feel it only gets better the more into the film you get. Mostly due to the character development we get to see from Davy. In the beginning, we really don’t get a true sense of who he is and it isn’t until much later you find out at what extent his loneliness really is.

There are several long scenes of Davy talking into the phone which is quite hard to do. Not only is he having a somewhat awkward relationship and conversation on the phone, but often does it while masturbating. Brian Geraghty does an amazing job with this character making him feel believable.

Easier with Practice is an independent film whose dialog at times is awkward but very real and honest, it is shot very well and the acting is good. The story is on the verge of being too simple but considering it was Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s first film it is impressive. The ending may not be as rewarding as you would hope, but you must appreciate it for what it is. I wouldn’t recommend this film to everyone but there are more than just a few that I think could enjoy it.