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mstarla
Reviews
Deal with the Devil (2000)
An Indy Low-Budget Classic!
The plot, acting and style of Deal With The Devil made it well worth watching and far superior to most movies of it's kind. I agree with one of the reviewers here that the sound could have been much better, but aside from that, it was a near perfect film. I guess Carlos Sagadia's Mr. Stone character was the strongest, but Rainey Harris as Cassandra was my favorite. She was beautiful, great singer, and a pretty good actress. I live in L.A. and saw this movie at a friend's house. He said that every time he plays the DVD for somebody, he watches it again. I can see why. Visually stimulating, great dialogue, a cool, soulful soundtrack, a unique feel, and a climactic ending make Deal With The Devil a true underground classic.
What Goes Around... (2006)
Not Bad
Good effort. Interesting script and some of the acting was good. The actress, Lisa Miller, who played the beautiful/unstable, Angela, was actually quite good. She delivered a near-stellar performance and is diffidently the main reason to see this movie. I believed her and hope to see her in bigger-budgeted films in the near future. I happened to see "What Goes Around" attending a film festival in Memphis. While it certainly wasn't the highlight of the festival, better production and a more original soundtrack could have made this a movie worthy of a seven-star vote. This story's been told before (many times) but Rod Pitts did a fine job and I know with (a lot) more production money at his disposal, we can expect really nice things from him in the future. Congrats to all involved and keep making movies.
The Poor & Hungry (2000)
Pure and Simplistic, Liked it a lot.
Call me crazy, but I really find "The Poor and the Hungry" to be the best Craig Brewer movie to-date. Yes, I know it was shot using little Sony camcorders and edited with pro-sumer type stuff, but it's so gritty, so realistic and so darn good, that I think it might just be one of the best "no budget" films of all time. I could watch this "Digi Flick" (a Brewer term) again and again. The power and elegance of simplicity, the earthy cinematography, the wonderfully controlled acting and fist-rate, unique, storytelling, place P&H high above other Brewer films. Having been to Memphis several times, I thought he did a great job of capturing this somewhat complex, divided and historically relevant city, while telling a heart-felt love story at the same time. Wanted to give this a "7.5" but didn't see an option to do so. If you get a chance to see this moving independent feature, make sure you do.