Simply Perfect

An Exercise In Nonsense

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I had never heard of Amy Shelton-White before this film and was surprised at what a good job she did portraying the lead character Magdalena. This film is unconventionally entertaining to the end. The cinematography was pleasantly shot throughout the 75 minutes – artful and carefully drawn out. The old building made an ideal set.I actually said 'Wow" several times throughout the film. Most films don’t have the balls to take risks like this film did. I was taken by surprise on a few developments and that counted a lot towards the overall viewing experience.Yeah some of the acting was rough around the edges as said by some of the reviews on here, but that was to be expected from an independent film and this was limited to some of the smaller roles and speaking parts.

I used to read comments here before watching a film, just to see if it's worth my time or not. I've learned better. Often I read glowing comments here only to later find the film to be a mediocre piece of movie making. Then there are the cases like this film. If I had based my watching it or not on what I read, I would have missed a surprisingly good film. This is not a bad film in any way. Yes, some of the actors are not the best, but they are passable. The lead actress is very good in her role as is the actor that plays her husband. The actors playing her brother and the one playing her guy "friend' are less talented. And, yes, the film does move rather slowly now and then, but for me that just added to the strange isolated mood of the story. The cinematography is well done too.I was also surprised at comments saying what a let down the ending was. Frankly I believe it was the ending that made everything that came before fit together so nicely. I found myself saying "Wow!" out loud at the final twist. It had caught me completely off guard. And that is not an easy thing to do. For instance in 'The Sixth Sense" I saw the "surprise" ending coming a mile away. Yet, in this film that had a much lesser budget to work with I was completely caught off guard. I enjoyed the ending very much. I can only figure that those who did not like the ending did not understand it. If you are paying attention it makes perfect sense.So if you like to watch lesser known gems that might require you to actually do some thinking, this is a film for you. It is well worth your time if you pay attention.

I know, I know sometimes you go into the movie store looking for something a little underground hoping it will be gold. I know I do. That's why when my brother told me he knew the guy who made this I was even more excited to check it out. But let me just tell you this movie breaks about a million laws from film school 101 (and not in the good way.) Long pauses, numerous unnecessary walking shots, and basically anything else a bad student film could contain. Every time the movie broaches something even close to interesting it suddenly cuts to a more quite brooding scene which doesn't tell us anything. It's not good bad and it's not bad bad, it's nothing and what a letdown at the end.

Magdalena's Brain is an interesting divergence on the psychotic personality. Maggie is the wife and research assistant to Arther and they are creating a crystalline structure that is 1,000 times denser and faster than the human brain and can operate the same way, by learning. It promises to be a boon to science if they can complete it. Things start to unravel quickly at the end as they complete the experiments and attempt to use it on a human subject. The editing and directing were pretty bad with many long pauses where none were necessary. Ordinarily you would have some dramatic effect with the pauses, but nothing… The acting, plot, dialog, and screen play were fair. Nothing spectacular, but nothing supper bad either.