Shadows of a Stranger

Even if you don't consider just how low budget this movie was, it's still an incredibly impressive piece of work. It's very well scripted and acted and has a very compelling narrative. Also, it looks and sounds absolutely amazing. Unlike a lot of low budget films it's abundantly clear that the filmmakers here understand filmmaking techniques - I've lost count of the amount of low budget movies I've seen in which its pretty obvious that the crew has no idea that they have to place the microphone close to the actors! Or the shot framing and composition is so godawful that it's like watching something your nan filmed. Shadows of a Stranger looks and sound like a movie that cost millions!

I highly recommend checking this one out. And I salute the filmmakers for their professionalism and for getting out there with limited resources and making a movie that they should be very proud of.

...but then I suspect that that was the point of this film. I don't think the filmmakers were setting out to win an Oscar in groundbreaking special effects. I think they just wanted to tell a story here, and what a great story it was! Once you accept the limitations that the filmmakers were working with, once you see past the few rough edges, there's a rich world of character and narrative which seems to be missing from the blockbusters all too much these days. Back in the day, George Lucas talked of special effects being just a tool to tell a story, not an end in themselves. I think this is a film that bucks the trend, that encourages you to look far beyond the surface, much like the character Xander is able to do. Perhaps it subconsciously had some meta thing going on there. But whatever, I say take a chance on it. So it didn't have a multi-million pound budget or A-list stars but it's this sort of creativity that should be championed.