Hush Money

Hush Money is an fantastic film with a great script. This movie is intense and captures the audience's attention from the get go. One of the best movies I've seen in a long time.

Witty, Gritty, Well written and well played.

This movie has heart and depth. Good development of characters. An adequate level of suspense and good dramatic feel.

Right on point with the topic and believable.

It was great that they kept it simple from a scenic point of view as so many movies add useless and unwarranted scenery, chases etc. Yes we all want to make a bond movie but the budget just doesn't allow it! I've sat through stuff and fallen asleep for the want of action in terms of story and this movie does a good job.

A big thank you to the two main characters who did a fantastic job.

Let me state first and foremost that I am a filmmaker myself, so I tend to look at films with both a cinematic eye, as well as one for pure entertainment.

HUSH MONEY is a film that caught both eyes. A superbly crafted piece of art, that both touches your heart and your mind. Director Terrell Lamont strikes a chord from the very beginning by embroiling you right into the predicament the main character, Douglas Shaw is in. As a member of the audience, you feel completely entrenched with Doug as he is faced with quandary after quandary, all with the hopes of making a better life for his family.

I don't want to speak too much into the details of the story, as it unravels beautifully within the film and rather than providing a synopsis, I'll speak to it's best elements. The story is one that many can identify with. The challenges and events that arise for the main character are both clever, realistic and heartbreaking. Structurally, it is tight and as sound as you never feel a moment of stagnancy. One of my biggest pet peeves in films are "filler scenes" that tend to throw you mounds of exposition that try to explain away why things are happening or what's to come next. HUSH MONEY has none of that. You essentially strap in from the opening credits and are along for the ride till the very end experiencing what the characters go through and seeing first hand their plight, rather than being told.

From a cinematic standpoint, this film stands on its own. Lamont perfectly captures a gritty, and immersive feel with well crafted shots, framed in such a unique manner to where the composition of the shots are familiar enough to an audience, but tweaked ever so slightly, just enough to evoke an intriguing and distinctive feel and emotion from the audience. To a filmmaker like myself, this is capturing the true essence of cinematic brilliance. If you take the basic, given or mundane and turn it into something unique and interesting, yet still true to what it is... that is brilliance.

My biggest takeaway from this film was that I've never seen something so enthralling, so engaging, from a story so simple, yet clever in how it is told. After all, that is what filmmakers are supposed to be, storytellers. My personal preference is to be told a story, but one that also yanks emotions from me, wows me visually and captures a mood or feel that I can resonate with. HUSH MONEY did that and more.

HUSH MONEY has become one of my all-time favorite films. I just now finished it. I am surprised I had never heard about it before now. It's a rare occasion when the story, script, characters and actors all come together in an almost PERFECT combination--MY GOSH, this movie moved me. I was even in tears near the end, which hardly ever happens. This has to be one of the most underrated movies of all time. I don't know if it has won any awards, but it sure should have if it didn't. I'm about to research HUSH MONEY's stats after I submit this review.

The language IS rough, and there have been times when I have stopped viewing movies that are awash in F-bombs. But I stayed with this one and am glad I did. I highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to be emotionally moved by a film. WOW!

What on earth gave anyone the idea that this was anything but bumbling amateurish actors struggling with a weak script that alternates between farce and tragedy. But the real tragedy is that this movie ever got made in the first place!. The story is weak the direction aimless and yet again, as in many of these low budget US movies the acting deplorable. Don't waste either your time or money on this garbage.