recommended

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The Cinema Snob Movie is a non-canonical origin story to "The Cinema Snob" series. On the surface it does appear that way. But like an artichoke, when the layers are peeled back and the heart is exposed we realize the film has a much darker tale underneath.So let's peel back those layers and expose what is at heart here.Clue #1 the DVD artwork done by David Gobble. At first glance, it may not seem out of place. But does it capture the tone of the film? Not really.Or does the image of Brad's face jutting out of the shadows, his head rest on his fist like Rodin's The Thinker, impart a message to the viewer? Perhaps its hinting at a darker, more thought-provoking story lying deep within.The Lloyd Approved DVD describes the plot as: "When small time exploitation filmmakers Craig (Brad Jones) and Neil (Jake Norvell)are denied filming permits by the snooty head of the local film commision (Note: their spelling mistake), Craig's only option is to go undercover as a pretentious film snob. But once accepted by the group Craig finds himself thrust into a strange and deadly mystery surrounding the very secretive club." On the surface, this does appear to be what the film is about. And after watching it you would say "But of course, that is exactly the movie I just watched." Except it isn't.Clue #2, the film's lack of logic and reality. Now this is a big one. Some of the actors come off like they are in a different movie. Craig has normal reactions to things. However Neil, and most of the other characters, do not. There are murders occurring and yet (spoilers) never once do the real cops show up. Is there an explanation for all this? Yes.You see Craig Golightly is the killer. The film we are watching is his reconstruction of reality in order to alleviate guilt from himself.When viewing the film from this angle, it's amazing how much sense everything makes. It's classic Freudian Wish fulfillment, where Craig is now the hero who saves the girl.Clue #3 "Craig's Serial Killer" is Det. Ted Adams. Why does he do it? For revenge. Does this make any sense at all? Not a bit. The only way Ted could have the knowledge to pull this off is if he is actually Craig.When does the first murder occur? When Craig joins the film club. You see, Ted Adams is Craig's version of his evil self. He's overweight, whiny, misguided. The story about his father- that's Craig's father and this fuels his insecurities about his own filmmaking.Why did Craig kill all these people? If the events in the film are a reconstructed reality then Craig has the ability to re-arrange the order of the murders.In reality Dan Phillips, Nancy's husband, is the first one to die. All the other murders are done by Craig and Nancy to prevent the police from learning about their affair.Clue #4 Identity issues. Craig Golightly sounds like a fake name. Perhaps it's a pseudonym being used by the killer. The contrivance of making Craig into a pretentious film snob is actually a storytelling technique used to clue us in. For after that, he takes on the persona of Vincent Dawn. In one revealing moment, the "cops" even point out that Craig mistakenly told them his name was Vincent. Why did he lie? Because he forgot his real name wasn't Vincent. Something seem a little off about that excuse? Now, let's break the story down to it's brass tacks.Craig, along with Neil, is trying to make a film called Black Angus. But they are having troubles putting it together and on top of that, Craig is insecure of his abilities because of his father's career.He joins a local film club, headed by Dan Phillips, in order to boost his confidence. However he is looked down on by everyone because of his taste in films. Phillips himself is the worst offender.There is only one person in the group who respects and encourages Craig. And that's Nancy, Phillips' wife. Soon the two start having an affair. At some point, Dan learns about the affair and confronts Craig. Craig loses control and suffocates Dan. He tells Nancy what he did, and she helps him cover up the murder.But soon others in the film club become suspicious. The affair had already been gossip and now with Dan's death, the group suspects foul play. Nancy and Craig start to bump off people one by one in order to protect themselves. Nancy seems to get turned on by it, while Craig is both repelled and excited by the power.Unfortunately the cops do catch on. Only they don't suspect Craig. They arrest Nancy thinking she acted alone. Nancy maintains her innocence and doesn't rat on Craig. Craig, in order to save Nancy from the police, enlists the help of Neil and an actor but their efforts prove unsuccessful.Neil ends up helping Craig find a Lawyer. The lawyer is Gene (Noah Antwiler). Gene is rich, knows everybody, and seems to be Craig's last hope for freeing Nancy. Gene is unsuccessful and Nancy ends up getting the death penalty. She dies, never incriminating Craig in their crimes. Craig walks away from the whole thing a free man.In order to remove the guilt he experiences following this, Craig constructs this new reality: a reality where he becomes the hero, where he saves Nancy from the cops, and where he is finally able to make his film Black Angus.I highly recommend this brilliant thriller. See it twice. Once for the story told on the surface. And the second time what's buried beneath the layers; the story at the heart of the artichoke.

You need to be a little familiar with the character and the tongue-in-cheek self-satire to really make the most of the movie. It is a good showing of the bits viewers have come to love out of the Snob & Co. without feeling like a clip reel. Genuinely funny but don't bother trying to explain it to your mom. If you aren't a loyal Snob fan how the heck did you find the movie? How did you find the review page on IMDb and what are you doing here? Stop spending so much time on the internet. You should punch your friends for making you watch something without context as you'll spend a brief moment of confusion followed by anger at a colossal Dickasaurus Rex.

When I received the DVD, my older brother looked at the box and read the back, and his response was "Wow, there is nothing I would rather watch less". To this, my reaction was simply "First, no one is asking you to. And second, it's not for you". Little did I know that this is actually one of the major themes of the CS's cinematic debut.Firstly, Nostalgia Critic may have been the gateway drug to TGWTG, but the Cinema Snob is the reason I keep coming back, especially after the tremendous loss of theSpoonyOne from the site (he is a close second to CS as my favorite), and to see these two still working together just made me so glad to see them not deprive the internet community of their amazing chemistry. I hope their collaborations continue for years to come. Brad Jones is one of the most charismatic and witty personalities on the internet, and this is simply a showcase of his immense talent, brought to us by the talented folks he has managed to surround himself with. That said, while the film does lose momentum a bit in the third act, it never feels rush or poorly paced. TeamSnob has something important to say about the state of culture, and uses their time on film wisely. Also, Springfield has never looked prettier during the day or more sinister at night.Brad carries the show, no question about it. Craig Golightly's alter ego is clearly a manifestation of the conflict within him, the desire to make something important but only being able to make trash. But trash this ain't. This theme was also sort of looked at with the CS's subplot in the TGWTG film 'To Boldly Flee'. What lives on, integrity or infamy? Beauty or shock?Special mention has to be made of Noah Antwiler aka Spoony. He absolutely steals every scene he is in. I've always thought Spoony was naturally talented and effortlessly sharp, and he really hits a stride here. Orlando as well really gets it and owns his Vladmir character, spewing out one of the best lines in the whole movie near the end. They both play it just wacky enough that the jokes work, and they seem to exist just outside the real world. The rest of the actors who make up the film club are excellent mock-ups of the various reasons why people get into art films - to be pretentious, because they were shamed into it by being told their taste was wrong, because they have voyeuristic fantasies, etc. Each is like a little call-out to the Eberts of the world.The film making and direction are top notch, and really display their growth as a production crew. Ryan and co. are clearly learning from their past works like 'Hooker' and 'Paranoia'. The pacing and editing are tighter, and the timing of the jokes really hit 80-90% of the time. It sometimes even rivals a lot of major independent works. TCSM is in a world of it's own, and it allows itself to really indulge in it, very much like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, even going so far in one bar scene to use what could be called a trademark Sunny gag ("Yeah, I'm still here"). Alas, there are always a few shortcomings, and they had to do with casting. I think Jake was fine as Neil, but I don't think he really quite fit the role, especially opposite someone with the personality of the CS. Not that he was terrible, but something about the mixing made him sound like he had a lisp, which I know from the CS site he certainly doesn't. It was a little distracting. Brian Lewis's Scott Bakula was a complete throwaway. I really dig the guy, but he was wasted here. AND WHERE WAS JERRID? But nothing spoiled the overall film, and these are minor squabbles from a devoted fan. I was laughing out loud too much to really be dragged down by them.From the worst modern independent films (Birdemic) to the best, this should rank up there as one of the top from the Internet 2.0 era. With most independent films of this kind, you usually find yourself forgiving the shortcomings and looking the other way when a glaring flub occurs because you are constantly reminded of the limits of the film makers. Any message or emotions are lost because the audience is too distracted by the miracle that a completed film was even made. But there was rarely a moment that took me out of the story here. I got their point, and it came across with style and quality.The message, as others have pointed out, is great: don't apologize for your taste. Do what you love, and love what you want to. The CS is the perfect vehicle to make this point - he himself is the contradiction in most creative people. His reach exceeds his grasp. You watch his series, and the humor comes from the fact that his intellect and his taste are completely opposite and always fighting within him. And who wins? The viewing public.Bless them for trying to make a film that reached beyond the fanbase. People who get the CS and the generation of internet reviewers born from the MST3k era will love this film, and people who don't get it, that's okay. They're not supposed to.ps - props to Big Box Model Jillian for giving up the goods.

So this movie is the movie that finally usurps the shawshank redemption in the IMDb top 250 ratings? Interesting to say the least. After watching paranoia and all of Brad's other "quality" films i can say without a doubt that this movie Isn't THAT good. At least this movie has commentary tracks from 3 different sources which is more than most homemade films offer. Also it's good to see that it was handled by a more professional team than most of the other Brad Jones films. But still this fanboy-ism (not a word but should be) needs to stop. We all seen this when the dark knight rises came out as well which was only really an OK flick. I'm not even sure if all the people in that excited category are real people on this page. Like when you look at independent films and all the comments and threads on release day are obviously people who worked on the film itself. Not saying Brad would do something like that to draw attention to his film cause i'm sure that type of stuff irritates him as well but at least two of them are probably people making multiple accounts. Still as a whole the lighting was good and scenes really work when they work, except for some over saturation in the park scenes this was excellently shot. But come on now? A perfect 10? Be serious now people cause that stuff just ain't right. Didn't hate it but also felt amateurish but like I said it is still miles above "hooker with a heart of gold" or "paranoia" which is the only one i should be comparing it to since it was the only one that was actually sold on DVD as well. This is miles above all Brads other movies and deserves to be watched if you are a fan. Well done script that could have been executed better but did not disappoint with technical prowess far above and beyond anything seen in paranoia. I like that it tries to be not just for fans and tries to be it's own self contained movie. I can see what everyone who worked on it was going for but yeah if you aren't already a fan then you aren't gonna enjoy this.