The New Republic

I stumbled on this movie over the weekend and checked it out. I noticed it was shot for $25,000 and I really like low budget films. Primer was an awesome film so was Travelling Salesman. So I figured I'd give this one a shot. The first thing I noticed is how well this was shot. It is done in very good quality. They put a lot of work and effort into the scenes. On a limited budget the way it was shot you have a hard time telling they are using the same locations over and over. They mask it really well. The acting is very good, for the most part. There are a few duds but they are set back by stronger characters. The main did a really good job so did his friend. The writing is done well with some witty commentary, and the story lays it self out well. It holds some very good suspense and you are left wondering what is going on up until the end. While the dialog isn't as strong as traveling salesman, I think the way in which it is shot, with the camera angles it builds some nice tension. Although some of the scenes seem pointless and there are some plot holes. For that reason I give it a 7/10. Great film for something neat to watch that isn't all Hollywood. The voice overs in a fight club manner make it interesting and surely quotable. It won't win story of the year, but it's a fun flick to watch.

I looked at this from two perspectives. The first was to compare it against a drama made with a normal multimillion dollar Hollywood budget. It did pretty good. I'd give it a fair six out of ten. It had a good story, passable acting, didn't do anything stupidly wrong or offensive and was generally quite interesting and enjoyable.

Then I considered that it was made for a hundredth of what even a SyFy Channel super cheapie TV movie is made for, a thousandth of what a cheap Hollywood movie like Footloose was made for and one ten thousandth of the budget of a true Hollywood blockbuster turkey like "The Lone Ranger." The New Republic had imagination. It had a good script about a slightly more totalitarian country than ours and it showed that country with very little. It kept you going as our character was sucked away by it.

Was it perfect? No. Was it great? No. It would be about a decent six stars out of ten. But that's not bad - especially when it took $150,000,000 for Mars Needs Moms just to eek out their five stars.

A big story accomplished on a little budget. There is a constant mystery and suspense throughout the movie. I was very taken with the quest to decipher just who is the villain and which direction the story was going. The actual plot was confusing at times but then when you think you have figured it out a turn happens and our hero David seems to be thrown right back to square one.

The setting is in and undefined near future but if you pay attention it's also a comment on our present time and which direction it's going. The political leaders, the police, federal agents, and underworld characters look just a bit too current. David is a frustrated journalist and decides to create his own website, this quickly becomes trouble for him. And how like is that for today? There are innocents now incarcerated because they wanted to speak out and have been quieted by 'the authorities'. Barrett Brown comes to mind.

This isn't a big first class picture and the story is better than most of acting but altogether it works very well.