User reviews

I'll be honest, a lot of the gags here are pretty hackneyed and the plot is just a conversation in which the only real pay off is that the main character learns to steal ideas from his love interest rather than existing movies.

That said, the camera work is spot on and the acting (particularly from Newberry) is so good that you actually briefly believe these characters in this weird roller coaster of a script that bounces back and forth from emotional-to cheesy-to funny.

The gags are each various dressings for over the top Flickinger cameos and they are pretty funny the first couple of times. If the script didn't rely so much on them, they might have retained their humor throughout, but unfortunately it does, and they don't.

In the end, Stuckman will likely go on to bigger and better things and this weird entry will just be a footnote.

The dialogue feels so formulaic and structured, but the film overall is far from boring: actually it's fairly amusing and quite fun to watch. The ludicrous, silly comedic bits - albeit frequently a bit too much - work well for the most part. The leads are really amiable, to be honest.

(6/10)

Take this for what it is: an amateur short with no budget. It is not Hollywood caliber by any means and it isn't supposed to be.

I was really surprised by the quality of the acting in this short. I was totally bought in to both characters.

The writing is decent. The over-the-top jokes (the cuts from fictional films) got a little tiresome, but the more subtle jokes in the dialog tend to land.

The camera angles took me out of this a bit and one left-to-right pan from character to character was particularly jarring. The tight close ups at the end also didn't work for me.

I noticed another review ripping the poor CGI in this... clearly this person missed the joke. It is supposed to be terrible.

I recommend taking the 20 minutes to watch this and imagine any one person making something so end-to-end tight. You might be as impressed as I was.

I watch Chris Stuckmannn's YouTube film reviews and I like his thoughtful analysis, but he never struck me as particularly funny or charismatic. After watching this film, I believe he really belongs behind the camera creating the show. Well done to him.

The acting was alright. The only thing I liked was the b movie guy that made me chuckle a few times. The rest was just meh, felt long because I had no interest what these two actors were talking about. Just my opinion.

For years, Chris Stuckmann has given us some of the greatest movie reviews on the internet. His reviews are less reviews and more like breakdowns on the given films. With someone who clearly understands movies, I was curious to see what Chris Stuckmann was able to create.

His first short film reminds me that it's not easy to create a Hollywood picture. This main character reflects Stuckmann's desire to create movies and because of that we begin to relate with him. It's also touching and sweet, which is what these types of shorts should be. Great work Chris. We all love you.

I liked the bits showing the fake movies. The Melanie character seems perpetually outraged which made it very hard to watch. I like Stuckmann's reviews plenty and he seems to do camerawork very well, but he's not great at writing dialogue. He's a talented guy, so I'm sure he'll improve with time.

Funny, heartfelt, and well-acted; I'm looking forward to seeing what Stuckmann, Heidger, and Newberry have to offer.

Going into this I thought, "Well he seems to know a lot about movies so this should be decent." Well turns out I was wrong. This movie is horrible. The first problem is the tone. It's like some kind of weird back n forth from awkward comedy to the serious path of a struggling film maker which is obviously Chris Stuckmann's film-making path put into this movie. I wouldn't mind the comedy if it wasn't spoken by two mediocre actors with no chemistry which points back to bad directing.

Last problem is its almost all handheld cam and if you pay attention hard enough you can see the camera shaking like someone is having a panic attack mid-scene. Really not needed and again bad directing choice. Only good thing I'll say is Flickinger's performance because it seems like he really wanted to show out for Chris. Other than that bad.

So, Chris Stuckmann is making movies now. Is good? well no not really, but is it bad? Yes, but for fixable reasons.

The idea of a screen writer needing to finally make a jump to making respected movies is one that can feel emotional to people who are writers, and in that lies the biggest issue with this movie. The script feels like it's tailor made for writers (which is an obvious stand in for Chris) and not much else. All the emotional scenes lose any sense of emotion when it revolves around characters you don't feel connected to. On top of that we go over 3 distinct feelings between the two characters that feel rushed given the short run time of the movie. If you've seen the movie you know these moments.

As for the good parts. The camera work isn't bad. It's nothing stylized or experimental, but for a low budget short film it works. The editing is solid leading to some fun moments from John as the D movie actor. The sound work isn't bad either, giving what could have been really bad audio to this film we actually have well recorded audio, so that deserves props.

I loved Chris for his videos for many years. So I want to see him get somewhere with his career, but that being said I think he should pick either being a film writer (in which he need to work on opening up his writing to a larger demographic and saving his passion projects for when he's finally made it) or being a film maker (in which he shows a lot of promise but really needs to find his style) and find a writer for his ideas.

As a massive Chris Stuckmann fan, I'm very impressed with this short film that he created! The camera movements and the writing definitely show the stages of him becoming a great filmmaker! I can't wait to see what he has coming next! Especially with that feature he's been talking about! You go Chris!

This is just horrible pretentious. Something that could only be created by the crazy bloated ego of a film critic playing film director for the day. The film reminds me of the something that would have been created by Smosh.

The gear used and the amount of crew for such a small film shows a true lack of skill sets and understanding a production budget.

Directing, lighting and set design is very bland. I rate this film a D-.

Stick to the reviews.

You been stuckmannized.

I am not usually a short film guy but this one was really good and it is nice to see Chris journey to becoming such a good filmmaker. Some of the acting is really good aswell.

Ok where do I start? Bad title. Actress was ok but the actor was awful. Script is bad. Most of the jokes fall flat. Dialogue is bad. Direction is ok but too much shaky cam. Way too much cheap hokie looking CG. So to summarise; its not good.

I cant help thinking Chris would tear this to pieces if he was reviewing it. If he wants to make genuinely good films he needs to give it 100% of his attention. This feels like a half assed side project inbetween reviews.

If you don't know the director is a movie critic, he has reviewed hundreds of movies on his youtube channel and Rotten Tomatoes. I really love his reviews, even through he's way too soft on most movies. The point is he has such a movie knowlegde, so I expected he'd use some of it to create a movie with fantastic plot and cheap (low budget) but genius tricks. Sadly, while this movie has some interesting writting, that's it. Story is very simple, the only thing it's worth watching are the dialogues and movie's somewhat style.

B-

Notes From Melanie is about a guy who doesn't have the best ideas for scripts. He tries to get some help from a bigger actor to help him make good content once again.

From when Chris Stuckmann announced this will be on his channel, I went crazy. Once I saw the announcement I couldn't contain myself. I decided to pull up Youtube on my computer I check it out. I have to say, I was impressed. I didn't really know how it was goin to be. Once I finished it, I was surprised. I thought the story was really good. I would like to see this stretched out into a movie. I think there is really great potential for this to be a solid movie. Maybe if he gets more money and does decide to make it into a full hour and a half film. I actually really enjoyed the score too. It was something I wouldn't think I would have liked as much as I did. A thing you can't not talk about is the acting. These smaller actors nailed their performances as the characters they played. The end I have so say was pretty solid. He did a good job of rapping up the whole film with a nice little bow on top.

Overall, Notes From Melanie was a great short film I would diffidently recommend. It is free on Youtube if you want to check it out too.

This is the kind of short I hope to see launch people into stardom. Stuckmann's dialogue, combined with two of the actors with the best chemistry I've seen even from wide theatrical releases lately, all with hilarious moments featuring John Flickinger, combine so perfectly to keep any film buff on the edge of their seat. The use of the set and props must also be admired here, as one can feel years of story being told just by the background. I can't wait to see another Chris Stuckmann original film, and if I ever make it into the film business myself, I hope to be able to work with him and learn from him.

This movie is a complete waste of time and honestly the textbook definition of a vanity project. It stars some guy who's trying to become a big-shot director who's clearly supposed to be Chris Stuckmann and pitching ideas to a woman in the business in what clearly is a metaphor for Chris' current struggle to get into Hollywood.

Anyway the acting is subpar at best, the shaky cam is nauseating and incredibly unnecessary, and the whole plot in itself is a bit of a yawn considering it's figuratively Chris screaming through the camera "PICK ME HOLLYWOOD, I WANNA BE A DIRECTOR, PICK ME!!!" Honestly I could forgive all of what I just mentioned if the comedy wasnt so STALE. My god Chris you can't write comedy. Stop trying. No one clicks on anything Chris Stuckmann related because they want to laugh. You have the personality of a cardboard box. In conclusion 2/10. He gets 1 star extra because it takes serious determination to make a vanity project to this degree.

I really like chris in this, great job to you and you wife Melanie

This short is ok. I know Chris can do a much better job I just gave it a ten to cheer him up if he sees it. Can't wait to see Shelby Oaks when it comes out I really hope it's a great film.

This is proof that most film "critics" are failed filmmakers or clueless wannabes.

Stuckman (and his YouTube ilk) is the epitome of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

This guy criticises films by regurgitating RLM's biased and uninformed criticisms, and other "popular" yet flawed or flatout wrong criticisms by other wannabes, without any true knowledge of film history, techniques, homages, etc. He has proven in his reviews his lack of understanding the basics of filmmaking, and yet he has delusions of grandeur that he is a film expert. The scary part is that his YouTube subscribers probably think that he has a clue.