the audience applauded

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Absolutely brilliant

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is an indie chick flick. It is about "the relationship." After a whole year, Jack (Mark Duplass) can't get over his brother's death, an indication this has written by a woman who believes men think like women. At the recommendation of his brother's ex-girlfriend Iris (Emily Blunt) he utilizes a remote cabin on an island in Washington state. As he arrives late at night Iris' sister Hannah (Rosemarie DeWitt) is also there. She just broke up with her girlfriend and they hit it off well, in fact a little too well.Iris, for some unexplained reason, arrives and confesses to her sister her love for Jack, one that is mutual but never spoken. We wait for the moment.The movie starts out with a bunch of pretentious dialogue, including the old, "remember when he stole a wheelchair" flashback. The dialogue was written badly. The acting was good, and I admit Lynn Shelton did a better job at directing this formula than writing it. Can we stop with a guy riding a bicycle with beautiful scenery to an acoustical accompaniment? It is time to move on.Parental Guidance: F-bomb. Brief sex scene. No nudity.

The biggest impression I got from this movie is how well the relationships and emotions are portrayed in it. That is, emotions of contemporary, urban, humans. Of course, it's not a documentary, so the story isn't 100% authentic, but, it's elements are. They are just jumbled together for greater effect.The acting is very good in the same respect. You will see elements of behavior of people you've known in this movie, and it's gonna be interesting.One final thing to observe is that they seem to have enjoyed making this movie. It's very nice when you sense that about a movie, and it's not very often that you do.

The director did an absolutely great job in my honest opinion. I don't know what they're called but I just like these types of festival films. I loved the acting, it was quite nice and sincere. However, the plot for me was a little too messed up honestly. One twist too much I think. Maybe real life is this messed up, I don't know but I personally feel like it was not a nice family film in that sense. What I really liked however was that it death with real emotion. Whether people are that open, honest or vulnerable in real life is another discussion. Overall, worth the hour and a half, good acting, good scenery, interesting premise/plot. Wouldn't say it's a must-watch but I didn't not like it. Maybe I was expecting a tad more because the trailer seemed so great, but there was just this one character, the sister, that I didn't like. I mean maybe the writer -same woman who directed it- was trying to achieve that but it seemed to me that they were trying to give the impression that all three stars were kinda messed up where I found only the sister to genuinely not be a good person whereas the others were just struggling with life like any person would. The sister and what she did seemed to evil to just simply forgive after a good night's sleep in my opinion. But definitely enjoyed watching it. Good job acting and directing. Not your usual movie. Interesting experience.

3.6 of 10 (temporarily rounded down until the film's rating is more realistic). This is what happens when you have some technically talented people (typically a group of actors and camera people making a film together based on a loose idea) in the details of film-making and no competent writer/editor. I'm guessing that's why some have been fooled into giving it good reviews. The gloss and general idea allows them to overcome significant story and casting flaws.We'll start with the title and sisters who clearly could only be adopted sisters (very different accents and face structures). Instead, they try to force them on us as actual sisters.As for the story, this seems like a romantic fantasy for inbreeding slacker hillbillies/Brits set in the Norwthwest. It hops on a couple of other current fantasies involving lesbians to expand its audience, but that doesn't really change the inner demented stupidity of the story. You could even argue that the writer does this with the intent of associating lesbians with inbreeding. Or the more likely scenario that the story was a raw idea made a complete mess by letting the actors go impromptu.I'd like to say a few post production edits could save this film, but it really requires a different direction in the second half of the film. Edits could make it less bad and maybe into an average "complex" film.