Very Cool!!!

Don't Believe the Hype

A Brilliant Conflict

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

Just watching it now, the fact that I'm not waiting for it to finish is probably a give away. I really did feel like I was watching a tasteless impersonation of Winona Ryder, but without any of the skill. It's a boring indie film, the plot is not believable, the main character is a depressing early 20s law school drop out. The incidental characters seem to become the centre of attention for a large percentage of the film, but there's nothing to hold your attention,just ridiculous writing, trying to be clever, misses the mark, I even felt like it was just smart ass lines being spewed out, with each character trying to out do each other. For the people rating it higher than a 2, they are associated with the film, or brain dead.

Pretty much, this film is about the wonderful, quirky Jess Weixler. When she acts opposite Tippi Hedren you see the full array of her facial expressions. The story doesn't move very fast, nor is there much of one, but if you like films like "Juno" then you should like this, although it's not in the same class as the aforementioned.The somewhat vacuous storyline and the rather dull setting, IE a bashed up ice cream van in a sub-urban parking lot are non-the-less brightened up by the excellent Jesse Weixler.If you like your movies full of action and special effects then forget this one.

Free samples is what an indie movie should be: small, quirky interesting, more character than action - about real life rather than just imagination, and this is Free Samples. It's a film that requires little effort to enjoy but is full of little vignettes that leap off the screen.All in all, I for one enjoyed this more than many big budget movies: the characters have something to say, the comedy is nicely observed, the camera is tight (even semi-documentary), it's well edited and well shot with a great sense of slacker pace about it and it has a charm of its own.Seriously, a nice gentle comedy set sround one day of looking after an artificial ice-cream van (so free samples) with some vitriol in the exchanges - the whole thing come across as ten times more honest than most comedies and this is one I would warmly recommend.

Based in part on a worryingly low IMDb rating, I went into "Free Samples" with some hesitance, but to my surprise it ended up as the highlight of the Palo Alto International Film Festival for me in terms of sheer entertainment value. It reminded me a great deal of a Sundance favorite from a few years back, "Smiley Face" with Anna Faris, due both to its snarky but ultimately sweet sense of humor and the wonderfully expressive and funny things that lead actress Jess Weixler is able to so with her face and her delivery. It's the kind of quirky -- I think one may in fact be required by law to use that word when reviewing films like this -- comedy about not all that much that understandably will rub some viewers the wrong way, but it's executed with so much giddy confidence (especially for a first feature) that it had me from the first minute and held onto me for all of the rest. Director Jay Gammill mentioned at the Q&A that he's currently working on a second feature with the same screenwriter. I'm looking forward to it.