Therapy: reviews

Therapy is a weird little flick, no doubt about it. It was always meant to be a little odd, even disconcerting and unfriendly in tone and pace. The goal was to give it a disturbing dream logic.

Here is a compilation of reviews, both good and bad. We just put them here for posterity, and because we're vapid and vain (ha, ha).

Film Threat

Four stars out of five. They were nice enough to call the film "alive and remarkably well-put together" and "a real marvel, a Rubik’s Cube for whenever we want."

B-Independent

"Fantastic! Visually dynamic. Well written, acted, and directed. Probably the best short I've seen in ages. I loved the premise and the way the story unfolded. You did exactly what I keep trying to beat into people's heads by getting to the point of each scene as quickly as possbile. You didn't waste a single frame and used cutaways effectively. Best yet, you had genuinely creepy atmosphere." - Allen Richards, B-Independent moderator

"Wonderfully shot and acted. Very impressive work. There appear to be a lot of problems with audio hum, and sound levels (and room tone differences) not matching between shots. This is no doubt exaggerated by the audio compression needed in making the quicktime movie. Audio is the hardest part of filmmaking to get right, particularly on the no-buget level." - Tom Powers (aTomX) of Grimworth Productions

"Other than the audio gliches... I thought it kicked butt! Enjoyed it highly..." - Jason Stephenson of Not For The Squeamish Productions

"I only have one thing to say. ...that was p-i-m-p PIMP BABY!!!!" - Schotten Film Works

DVinfo.net

"I thought it was an interesting and really good made movie. Good editing and a good way to tell the story. There are a couple of things I didn't like too much: - The use of her name after a lot of sentences: "No need to raiseyour voice... Max". We already know her name. - Microphone (?) hum. Not annyoing on itself. But definitely when it switches on and off. That took me away from the short a bit - Opening sentence of the doctor. But other than that I thought it was nicely done with some good acting. The doctor got a lot better during the movie. Julia was nice! I'm not sure how well I like the "twist". I thought the setup was pretty neat and was interested to see where it went. I was expecting a bit more in terms of what is going on. But that shows the setup was pretty well done! All in all an enjoyable short. Nice!" - Rob Lohman of Lady X Films

Rewindvideo.com

"I remember thinking it was a lot like a nightmare I once had, with the repetitious exposition (nice btw), and the whole mental paranoia angle. I'm gonna have to check it out again, I remember the ending bugging me.. I'd hoped for some light at the end of the tunnel I guess. Regardless, it has a sorta fear-of-submission thing going, which I presume was your aim. In this regard, I'd say you were successful!" - Jon Ashby of Rewind Video and Infiniti Films

"I really liked it. It felt very Kubrickian. The story line was great and well paced. The only thing that I didn't quite get 'til afterwards was if it was suicide or not. Was it? I really liked the acting/directing. The only character that didn't completely work for me was the nurse—and I couldn't tell you why. But I really felt for the lead actress (she has a great, interesting face, BTW). Technically, it was great. I liked the camera movements and the constant zoom/rotations contrasted with the locked down shots of the doctor. Everything was composed and edited beautifully. The ECUs were original and looked awesome! In terms of the 'look' of your film, it worked well until you went outdoors. The footage just didn't have the same feel. But the lighting/production design looked great, otherwise. I was getting chills when the camera panned up the wires that were attached to her head. The sound was great overall. I liked the score. And for having your microphone die on you, everything sounded consistent (which is good). I even liked that high-pitched hum in the room tone. However, because there was a loud sound it your room tone, the sound edits were very noticeable—the hum cut in and out and it was a little distracting (which could be fixed in the final audio mix). It was fun to watch. These slower paced shorts can be tough to watch, but this one kept my interest the whole time." - Joren Clark of Jorenclark.com