Before I Disappear (2014)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Excellent but underrated film

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Firstly, I came to this movie without having seen "Curfew". Several commentators have pointed out that that is important in the way you see this movie so I'll get that out of the way to start with. I checked out the user score (7.2 at time of writing) and the Meta score (47/100 at time of writing). A bit of a mismatch I thought and maybe it was down to the film being "upped" by users. (We all know it happens right? Reviewers who come out of nowhere and submit one review giving a film 10 / 10 and then disappear as quickly as they appeared. All's fair in love and marketing). Anyway, as a result I decided to take a chance on it but with some reservations at the back of my mind and not really expecting anything that would really get me. What followed was rare, the realisation that the users had nailed it and the critics had really come down way too hard on this movie for all the wrong reasons. "Underwhelming, inconsistent, superfluous, bloated, meandering, posey, abrasive, over amped" to mention a few of the words used. I really don't know what film they were watching. Shawn Christensen, the writer, director and star of this film has already picked up an Oscar in 2013 for best Live Action Short but this film is dismissed as "not a bad freshman effort"? Ignore the critics and take a chance on this one. If you go in with an open mind and let yourself go with it's unusual flow you might really enjoy it. Finally, the cast were uniformly good. Fatima Ptacek, who I hadn't come across before, was brilliant, certainly one to watch, and Ron Perlman was Ron Perlman, nobody does that better than him.

It's quite refreshing to watch a movie that holds the viewer's interest with story, characters, chemistry, and real life issues without resorting to gunfights, gratuitous violence, sex, or heroes. There are no heroes in "Befoe I disappear, and why should there be, when the real world does not really have heroes, either? A group of people, all of whom with serious flaws and real-life issues, interacting with each other in situations that are not cookie-cutter'd or neat, can be a fascinating yet frightening thing to behold, as in this movie. Yet, there is just enough of humanity and hope in each of them to deserve rooting on by the viewer. Nobody in this movie is perfect, and nobody is beyond even a little hope, just like us in the world at large. Fatima Ptacek is a crack of sunlight shining through the dark, damp corners of the world in this movie, reminiscent of Natalie Portman in "Leon: The Professional," although "Before I disappear" is far more cliché-free.

I give this an 8 and I don't do it lightly. I'm also not rating it highly as an indie, it's good compared to any project. This movie is absolutely haunting. The writer has a deep understand of people and displays them so realistically. I really liked the fact that it didn't have cliché characters. The "gangsters" don't do what you expect them to do. The things people did in this movie weren't over the top, it felt very real.The cinematography and shots were fantastic in this movie. It was at times like a dream or an acid trip and it never felt out of place. The transitions between hallucinations and real life were not stark and abrupt like in other movies where someone is tripping. Shawn Christensen is going to be the director to watch out for in the future. The casting was perfect. Everybody was good. I just dislike Ron Perlman because he gets cast in this type of role in so many movies that it's starting to be a cliché, still he was great.Christensen is also a great writer. This movie was at once deeply sad and entertaining. Casting Fatima Ptecek as Sophia was perfect. She was the pillar of light for Richie's darkness and she was just a delight to watch. There really is something special about Ptecek. She's the next Abigail Breslin.

I watched Before I Disappear when it screened at the Hollywood Film Festival this past weekend and also fell in love with the short film version, Curfew, when I saw it after it won the Oscar for best live action short film.The feature film is an outstanding debut for writer/director/star/producer, Shawn Christensen, the man with many hats. This independent film has such a beautiful balance of dark themes such as suicide, drug addiction, and depression but couples it with some very dry and dark humor, an incredibly emotional core, and a hopeful message of life and love. The strong character-driven story is very original and has such great characters to invest in, especially the core relationship between the main character, Richie, and her niece, Sophia, played by the extremely talented, Fatima Ptacek. Christensen's strong visual and storytelling style flows seamlessly throughout the movie, showing his brilliantly creative voice. For one, the visuals and the cinematography are absolutely stunning from each scene to the next, with vibrant colors, smooth camera composition and movement, and unique lighting choices all throughout the story. Also, there's quite a bit of surrealism in this feature, which might have took me back at first, but realized how creative and beautiful the storytelling techniques progressed the character's motivations through them. And finally, with Christensen's background as a musician, music plays a vital role in the film, weaving the drive of each character, as really great music drives the story just as powerfully as the visuals.I honestly loved this film and can't wait to watch it again, hopefully own it on DVD, too! Shawn Christensen definitely has become one of my favorite directors as well as one of the strongest voices as an up and coming artist in film, who already has got his hands on an Oscar as he shows off his incredibly well made first feature length film. Before I Disappear is a beautiful piece of filmmaking that grabs the audience on an emotional level, isn't afraid to be bold, and can really get you thinking and soon enough appreciate the great value of our very lives.