Just perfect...

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

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

It's mid-Dec. 2011 and we're just *now* getting this great little flick from 2009 in San Francisco?! What is up with that?! It gets a rave in today's Chronicle (Fri. Dec. 16), same day the new Rbt Downey Jr Sherlock Bombs flick gets totally trashed...but still gets a humongous front page, top-of-the fold photo placement...what the...? Brothers and sisters who love quirky, indie flicks that are well produced, acted and directed: Find this little beauty on DVD (the director and female lead were in the house for a really cool post-screening Q&A, and he said it'd be out on DVD soon). Can't wait to watch it again and share it w/friends. Go! Get! Enjoy!

A unique, almost unclassifiable mixture of ghost story and poetic mood piece, writer/director Steven Peros's FOOTPRINTS opens on a dazed young woman (Sybil Temtchine) who comes to her senses in the forecourt of the Chinese Theater, then follows her as she wanders up and down the boulevard trying to piece together who she is, how she got there and what her future might be. Besides the Chinese, the film touches on many familiar landmarks (to Angelenos, at least) of the real, geographical Hollywood: the Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood Book & Poster Company, the Scientology Center, tour guides and street performers. In that sense FOOTPRINTS is very much a movie about the actual Hollywood, a gaudy and more than slightly seedy neighborhood where people live and work. Peros shows a real knowledge and affection for the neighborhood: you can almost smell the exhaust coming off the boulevard and hear the sounds of people jostling and hawking up and down the street. On a deeper level, though, FOOTPRINTS is about the Myth of Hollywood, the dreams and delusions that young hopefuls bring there. Dreams that sustain them through years of rejection and disappointment, and dreams that in the end can break them. In an extremely savvy bit of casting, Peros draws on two Hollywood survivors -- actor H.M. Wynant (a familiar face to fans of classic 1950's and 1960's TV from appearances in "The Wild Wild West," "Playhouse 90," "Perry Mason" and many others) and actress Pippa Scott (THE SEARCHERS, AUNTIE MAME, "The Virginian") -- to play key roles in the story. Wynant and Scott both lend a quiet grace and rueful charm to their parts, and when they talk about Hollywood you get the sense it comes from a lifetime of hard experience. It's not too much of a stretch to compare the film to THE WIZARD OF OZ, with Temtchine's lost, amnesiac lead character standing in for Dorothy as she wakes up in a strange wonderland filled with sometimes helpful, sometimes sinister characters, and trying desperately to find her way "home," wherever that may be. FOOTPRINTS is also a ghost story of sorts (although definitely not a horror film) -- and especially in an indie film world too often filled with overly literal, kitchen-sink dramas, it's really refreshing to see an independent film that's as poetic and haunting as this one is.

Storytelling at its best! Very imaginative. It has heart, it has drama, it has nostalgia. It makes me wonder about what it was like at another time in Hollywood. I'm still thinking about it. Writer-Director Steven Peros took a simple idea that not too many people would think about and turned it into a believable journey that every person can relate to. Every frame grabbed my attention and kept me going till the very end. The acting was very well done. It's film making at its best where there is no need for blow-ups, violence, or robots. I would see it again just to get re-inspired by the cinematography. I hope it inspires more film makers to make more films like this. See it.

I managed to catch a sneak preview of Footprints at the Egyptian and I was really touched by it. Writer-Director Steven Peros takes you on a magical, mystery tour up and down the famed boulevard that reaches into Hollywood's past and reaches out to Hollywood's future. Sybil Temtchine shines in the lead role, hitting all the right notes as you follow her journey. And John Brickner--as the flunky tour guide who tries to help out--shows why his is a name to remember. It's the kind of movie that seems to have a little something for everyone, just like the industry to which it pays homage. It's got wit, it's got charm, and it leaves you thinking. One of those movies you'll want to see again once you know how it ends. But next time I'll bring a date!