Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This movie is very good and I recommend watching it despite the fact that the ending is ambiguous and was written and produced to be that way. Its not for the millennial crowd for sure----there are no jump scares or explosions or car chases or digital side stories------but I imagine if there are some from the 20-32 crowd who are critical thinkers, it might work.The acting and screenplay are very good. The story is believable in that it presents a believable set of circumstances for having the young couple seek a documentary investigation of a mysterious and beautiful cult leader. The cult leader's story is not so believable in that it asks us to believe in time travel, but that's the point of the documentary that the young couple are making.This film is not a documentary only a film about a couple that infiltrates a small cult and then is face with a dilemma. Don't feel bad or be angry at the lack of story resolution: there are many , many people who spent a lot of time trying to figure this one out! You only have to read the movie blogs and "endings explained"- style websites to see that no clear explanation exists.However, if you pay attention to some of the techniques employed by the Director to provide clues (back stories) or reasons to believe in the veracity of the Cult leader, you will find this film rewarding. There is a possibility that requires a leap of faith!

Sound of My Voice is a low budget film ($135,000) that completely did the trick. The story's ingenious and controverts between truthfulness and the art of persuasion while blending a thrilling psychology and Science Fiction with mild strokes of Romance. The film was highly flattered by film critics and received high praises mainly for making the most with little means. The cast, mostly unknowns, is exquisitely picked and the soundtrack is flawless, particularly the ending track of Hot Chip's Thieves in the Night. Brit Marling is a PERFECT Maggie! She also co-wrote and produced Sound of My Voice alongside director Zal Batmanglij and has a refreshing appearance that keeps you mesmerized throughout the film. I love her.The film has a grasping climax that leaves you open mouthed and still thinking about it after. I went through the entire roller feeling restless and pondering. I love to watch it every now and then.

That rating -- seven -- is tentative because I nodded out about half way through. It was certainly not the fault of the film, which begins slowly but gradually turns fairly gripping.Two journalists -- a young couple -- decide to investigate a cult in Los Angeles, using spy cams and writing notes on the sly, while pretending to become devoted members. After they are introduced to the basics -- the complicated handshakes, the mandated pre-meeting shower, the wearing of flowing white garb -- they are introduced to "Maggie," who claims to be from the future, having been born in something like 2040.The male mole is Christopher Denham and he seems to enter the thrall of Maggie, weeping while she explores his past at a meeting, vomiting on cue, and so forth. He's accused by his partner, Nicole Vicius, of becoming brainwashed, but although his performances during the sessions are convincing, so are his explanations to Vicius - that it's all part of the act, designed to maintain rapport with the cult.Vicius finally decides that the rapport he's trying to achieve has more to do with Maggi than with the cult and she throws him out of her apartment on his behind. This is a reasonable enough conclusion on her part. Denham may be good at rationalization but Maggie is something else. She's play by Brit Marling, who also had a hand in the screenplay. You ought to see her. She has a fine figure, strong, arresting features, long tresses the color of a Van Gogh wheat field, and a soothing but penetrating FM-radio kind of voice. Any normal man would want to throw himself at her feet and grovel while licking her tarsals.However, she doesn't like cyncism and although she never obviously floods out with anger, she tosses out one poor Chinese kid who asks her to sing a song from the future. After she complies and comes up with some feel-good folksy tune, getting the whole group to sing along with her on the second run, the Oriental gentleman points out that this song was written in the 1990s. She has a ready explanation, she continues smiling, her mien remains unruffled, but boy does she get rid of that Wog kid fast.I was getting drowsy about the time she invited Denham into her private boudoir. I was hoping for the usual orgiastic coupling but instead, Maggie whips out a cigarette and tells Denham that either he kidnaps one of his eight-year-old students (he's a teacher) or he's blackballed. At that point, eurythmic breathing set in. This damned narcolepsy.Not being able to see the wind up was really a nuisance too. The story had a personal fascination built into it. For one thing, I'd known one of the girls who was a suicide in the Heaven's Gate Cult. For another I'd taught a seminar on cult behavior and nobody could come up with any consistent explanations for cult formation and recruitment. And the head of my committee in graduate school was the world's leading authority on institutionalized vomiting. Finally, with the exception of Brit Marling's magnetism, which her cock eyes and slight lisp only enhance, it was beginning to remind me a great deal of Ayn Rand's clique back in the 40s and 50s.If it's on again, I'll certainly try to catch it. It looked promising.

This indie film, despite its flaws, including some annoyingly uninspiring cult indoctrination moments and the sub-Lost-non-ending ending, which leaves space for weirdos to interpret as a suggestion that cults aren't really just trying to steal your money and indoctrinate you into doing something stupid like kill yourself in tennis shoes, actually kept me excited to the very "end." I'm interested in seeing what these folks can come up with next time. The story was mostly good, and the production, even for a low budget film, was beautiful. I just hope they can resolve something in their next piece.