User reviews

Free samples is what an indie movie should be: small, quirky interesting, more character than action - about real life rather than just imagination, and this is Free Samples. It's a film that requires little effort to enjoy but is full of little vignettes that leap off the screen.

All in all, I for one enjoyed this more than many big budget movies: the characters have something to say, the comedy is nicely observed, the camera is tight (even semi-documentary), it's well edited and well shot with a great sense of slacker pace about it and it has a charm of its own.

Seriously, a nice gentle comedy set sround one day of looking after an artificial ice-cream van (so free samples) with some vitriol in the exchanges - the whole thing come across as ten times more honest than most comedies and this is one I would warmly recommend.

This is one of those indie type films I'm actually glad I watched. It's very quirky, and had those moments that made you stop and think. When it started, I had my doubts, but Jesse Eisenberg helped pull me into the story. It's also got some 'laugh out Ioud' moments and some 'laugh out loud about a minute later' moments when you actually process the hilarity of some of the dialogue. The cast is cool.I love the emergence of Jason Ritter, I think he's more talented than people give him credit for. I enjoyed seeing Jesse Eisenberg in a different type role and seeing Tippi Hedren in it was pretty cool too. There was one scene where I thought the comedy didn't work very well, but that's typical of most movies, I guess. Gammill and Beggarly make a good team, not sure if they're working on other stuff together, but there's definitely a market for these types of movies.

It's kind of the female version of clerks! Jillian spends the day filling in for a friend. She hands out free samples of some mysterious food, which may or may not be made of dairy. No one knows. Most people are rude. A couple are friendly. Jillian sends a homeless person to get a coffee, but of course, the person doesn't comes back. And she runs into her ex. And of course, the ex's new girlfriend. Or is she not a "new" girlfriend? It's complicated. Some fun names making appearances.. tippi hedron (the birds), jesse eisenberg, jason ritter. It's an interesting afternoon, watching her interact with the various people. Kind of a study of everyday people. Directed by jay gammil. He was nominated for several emmies for the great race. Written by jim beggarly.

Jillian (Jess Weixler) has left Stanford law school and her boyfriend for a semester to try something new. Only she's no good at anything other than drinking. After a night of passout drinking, she has to give out free samples of ice cream from a food truck for a friend who is joining an intervention for her brother. She faces people with her acerbic wit and her pounding hangover.

I love Jess Weixler's sardonic personality. And it works great especially in the first half with Jason Ritter. They have a fun combative conversation. It's not so much with Jesse Eisenberg. She has more chemistry with Ritter.

The last half does stumble a little bit. Tippi Hedren is playing an interesting character but it's just too cliché. And when school friend Paula drops by, it hits that speed bump a little too hard. For that kind of coincidence, it could never maintain any believability.

This is the definition of a "small" film - no car chases, no guns, relatively little action, lots of talking but somehow moving and enjoyable. The humor is chuckle rather than laugh out loud but the film keeps moving and is never boring. Perhaps best watched at home rather than in a movie theater with minimal distractions. Good acting, even in the smallest of parts, is the mainstay of this movie and the direction is subtle and relatively invisible. The movie is about a 20 something who has hit a roadblock and has literally dropped out of the life she was living. A day spent running a mobile custard stand somehow jolts our 20 something back to life. If you don't need explosions and special effects to enjoy yourself, consider investing 80 minutes in this fine little film.

This one-set Indy tries very hard to be sharp and mordant and timely. The trouble is that nothing about the characters or their situations rings true. The main set is an ice cream truck located in what looks like a borderline ghetto where the heroine must give away free samples of chocolate and vanilla, nothing else. The workers and everyone in the neighborhood seem to already know that the pseudo ice cream is horrible. So what are they really doing there? In what alternate universe would this actually happen?

Apparently in the same universe where a self-absorbed Cali-blonde Stanford law student would be SHOCKED, SHOCKED I say, to learn that 5 years after she left home, her dad moved out and took up with a trophy bimbo. That evidently never happens in alternate universe Z, so of course it sends our heroine into a drunken tailspin where she must engage in contrived sardonic banter with every unlikely walk-on character who ambles by her pseudo ice cream truck. Sadly, none of these encounters feels more forced or contrived than the heroine's confrontation with her unwanted fiancée.

After 90 minutes of this I yearned to get back to our universe where Cheech and Chong would have a very good business plan for that ice cream truck working the ghetto and where all their customers' curious demands for "stamps" would make sense.

When I was watching Free Samples by myfreedeals.com I was taken for a great and surprising ride. I did not know how funny Jillian was going to be in this movie. At first, I was not going to watch but the fun all begins when the Ice Cream truck comes into play. If you are looking for a funny light hearted movie this is one you definitely want to see. My personal opinion is that you will be laughing for about half of the movies at the same time you will feel the emotion that the characters are going through. I don't want to ruin the ending for anyone but the end of the movie is one of the most important parts to me and I was definitely not disappointed. You need to add this movie to your collection.

Decent dialog driven movie that has some good acting but never really develops a worthy plot.

Based in part on a worryingly low IMDb rating, I went into "Free Samples" with some hesitance, but to my surprise it ended up as the highlight of the Palo Alto International Film Festival for me in terms of sheer entertainment value. It reminded me a great deal of a Sundance favorite from a few years back, "Smiley Face" with Anna Faris, due both to its snarky but ultimately sweet sense of humor and the wonderfully expressive and funny things that lead actress Jess Weixler is able to so with her face and her delivery. It's the kind of quirky -- I think one may in fact be required by law to use that word when reviewing films like this -- comedy about not all that much that understandably will rub some viewers the wrong way, but it's executed with so much giddy confidence (especially for a first feature) that it had me from the first minute and held onto me for all of the rest. Director Jay Gammill mentioned at the Q&A that he's currently working on a second feature with the same screenwriter. I'm looking forward to it.

Just watching it now, the fact that I'm not waiting for it to finish is probably a give away. I really did feel like I was watching a tasteless impersonation of Winona Ryder, but without any of the skill. It's a boring indie film, the plot is not believable, the main character is a depressing early 20s law school drop out. The incidental characters seem to become the centre of attention for a large percentage of the film, but there's nothing to hold your attention,just ridiculous writing, trying to be clever, misses the mark, I even felt like it was just smart ass lines being spewed out, with each character trying to out do each other. For the people rating it higher than a 2, they are associated with the film, or brain dead.

She's a Stanford Law School dropout, ostensibly taking a year off to figure out why law school isn't motivating her, and she ends up sitting in an ice cream truck for a day, giving away free samples to cover for a friend who has to do an intervention for her brother. Sound familiar? I'm sorry to hear that. Free Samples is a look into the lonely, solitary journey each of us needs to take to find out what might be the calling to end all callings. It's also a humorous attempt to show that nerds are totally enticing, weirdos are human, and the elderly have stories worth slowing down to hear. Women should love this movie. It has it all. Thus begins my Free Samples Movie Review.

Jillian, our dropout, is played by Jess Weixler, whom you may recognize from the TV series The Good Wife. She is in three movies this year, and judging from her brilliant performance in Free Samples, she will be a household name before too long. She owns the screen, not in that Julia Roberts way, but rather in the way of a normal, good-looking person. Sarcasm drips from her lips like honey, providing perspective rather than destroying it. She lets her guard down just twice during the film; once when she is listening to the tales of a former movie star, and again at the end when she agrees to allow a man named Tex (played by Jessie Eisenberg, whom we all have grown to love and trust) to seduce her into giving him a chance. Both moments scream through the rest of her otherwise reserved performance, finally letting us see what is going on inside her shell.

There is a point in the movie when she is crying about a lover who has just dumped her, and she admits that the reason she is crying is because she cannot believe she wasted so much time on someone she didn't really care about — and certainly never loved. It was a relief to see her articulate on the screen the dirty secret many of us carry, a feeling that is so real to so many women. Settle, we tell ourselves. Be comfortable. Accept boredom. Bury the passion. Oh, the lives we can lead without fighting!

We never see the ice cream. I wanted to see the ice cream. I wanted to see more of the inside of the truck. I want to know more about what she might have become. I am clueless. And while I'm sure the ambiguous ending was all part of the point of the movie, I want to know there is more than just the hope she can end up with a good guy like Tex. (He really is a good guy, isn't he?) I want to know that she will find something to be passionate about, something that will motivate her to action. What will she do with her days after the reel ends?

The direction is great — there is none. Jay Gammill, who looks like he's ten, has a fresh approach to direction, and it works. Just point the camera at the day's events unfolding around a truck. Nice. You feel as if there is a chair from KMart set up in front of the truck and you are sitting there with popcorn in your lap, watching a young woman crankily giving out samples of bad ice cream and the lessons she and those sampling learn along the way. Fabulous.

See it.

'FREE SAMPLES': Two Stars (Out of Five)

Pointless and annoying indie comedy film about a law student dropout who goes back home to Los Angeles to 'find herself' and runs her friend's ice cream truck for a day. The film was written by first time feature film writer Jim Beggarly and directed by first time feature film director Jay Gammill. It stars Jess Weixler and features cameos by Jesse Eisenberg, Jason Ritter, Matt Walsh, Whitney Able, Halley Feiffer and Tippi Hedren. The supporting cast is the film's one saving grace but I found Weixler's character (which is in every scene of the movie) to be highly annoying and depressing.

Weixler plays Jillian, a Stanford law-school dropout who moves back home to Los Angeles to figure out what she wants in life. The film takes place all in one 24-hour period and begins with Jillian getting wasted at a bar one evening (while hanging out with her friends). She's been on a six-month break from her boyfriend and meets a young man, she calls Tex (Eisenberg), who asks her out on a date (but forgets him when she's sober). The next morning she agrees to fill in for her friend Nancy (Feiffer) at her job, running an ice cream truck for the day, so Nancy can go to a family drug intervention for her brother. Jillian spends the day dealing with crazy customers and old friends as she argues with everyone and feels sorry for herself.

I like character driven movies (where nothing really eventful happens) but I have to care about the characters in some way. Jillian here is way too negative and antagonistic (to everyone she meets). While filling in for her friend she probably ruined her business and scared away all the customers! Why should I care what happens to her? In the end she of course comes to some kind of a revelation and seems like she might change but it isn't very convincing and seems tacked on. Her overwhelming cynicism makes the whole movie seem cynical but most of all it's just annoying. I couldn't stand the main character. Eisenberg, Ritter and a few others are likable in the film but their parts are way too brief and underdeveloped. Most of all the movie felt like a film for trolls (all about how trolls live and torment others). I don't want to see a movie like that.

Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JDL6l-UAwQ

I wanted to like this movie. I am a fan of many of the actors in the film but the problem wasn't them but the characters they were portraying...

I couldn't find anything to like about any of them... The characters all seemed like whiners to me... Oh my Dad is a big bad lawyer, my brother is an addict, I'm in a crappy band... I got a crappy cowboy hat! Why would you bother with the main character at all? Sure she is cute but she is also a mean bitch... She treats everyone like crap and then runs crying to someone else when she gets some bad news...

Stay away... Time waster...

5 howls outta 10...

ArrOOoo!

Somehow popped up on as free on a streaming service and I saw Jesse Eisenberg so decided to give this a shot. He sort of bookends the film, perhaps all in a good day's shooting for an old pal?

Personally it took a couple nights attempting to get through it, while you can root for if not enjoy the indie vibe, the film flat out doesn't deliver.

The student film street cred gets a little torqued by Eisenberg and Tippi Hedren in an interesting role, trying not to age into an elegy. Brava.

For me the trouble was that Jess Weixler could not carry the film, too many times her reaction shots to Hedren in particular but the the calvacade of visitors to her food truck would drift off, and encourage us the viewer to do the same. And the "romantic" one that got away, feels like a lucky break more than it elicits any more twisted emotions.

Like the ice cream for sale which is not technically ice cream, this film is not quite the post-millennial Hal Hartley-esque auteur outing its producers or us viewers want it to be.

Pretty much, this film is about the wonderful, quirky Jess Weixler. When she acts opposite Tippi Hedren you see the full array of her facial expressions. The story doesn't move very fast, nor is there much of one, but if you like films like "Juno" then you should like this, although it's not in the same class as the aforementioned.

The somewhat vacuous storyline and the rather dull setting, IE a bashed up ice cream van in a sub-urban parking lot are non-the-less brightened up by the excellent Jesse Weixler.

If you like your movies full of action and special effects then forget this one.

This is dire.

It's almost like the people behind the scenes of this film had a Bingo card of standard indie comedy tropes, characters and dialogue and took great delight in then ticking them off as they completed the making of this limp project.

There's very little to like about it I'm afraid. It ticks the indie comedy boxes sure, but there's nothing here of note. A few big names slumming it, but nothing more.

To be honest, apart from the big names, if you were to have told me that this was a students final media piece for school I would have believed you.

This really wasn't very good I'm afraid.

Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor Clerks without the humor.

Set up that makes no sense. A set that makes no sense. Characters that make no sense and are all unlikeable. Terrible acting from the lead. Felt like I was watching a bad high school play. I honestly can't believe this movie got made or that anyone liked it. I wonder more and more if the reviews on here are paid. Poor attempt at what Clerks accomplished. Not Funny. Still need to say more so: bad, bad bad. Don't watch it. Don't waste your time. Really bad. Don't watch it. Don't waste your time. No I am serious. It is that bad. I don't have enough to say about it so hopefully you stopped half way through.

'Free Samples' is not a masterpiece, but it's a simple, understated spark of quirkiness and brilliance, without doubt. Not only is it hard not to like this film, it's hard not to like the sarcastic, drop-out Jillian, played by Jess Weixler, who gives a faultless, genuine performance. One thing I find great is how we know nothing about Jillian initially, but we gradually learn more and more as she sells more and more ice-cream through the day. Jesse Eisenberg gives another cool performance of his and the ever-wonderful Tippi Hedren gives a brilliant touch to this delight.

This indie piece shows how so much can hit you throughout a day of serving chocolate or vanilla ice-cream samples. With subtle emotional input and very funny scenes, 'Free Samples' is a desert not to be turned down.

I am retired, I watch movies every day, I collect them and I only stumbled across this gem in 2017. There should be more than just 23 reviews of this wonderful film so I am adding mine. I thought the movie Clerks was brilliant, and I think this movie is similarly brilliant. Similar themes, similar presentation, similar degree of profundity, but Free Samples is much more friendly and the acting is far more charming. And the charm stays with you as you contemplate the possibilities.

Here's the the thing about so-called Independent film these days, it's so much more cheaper and easier to make than it use to be and most of it is unworthy. It seems like everyone is trying to make the next "Clerks" or "Slingblade" and they simply don't have the talent or the vision. "Free Samples" is a great example of what they could be. It's a pretty relatable example of a commonplace metaphysical crisis (at least for a large demographic), and well done top to bottom. Quality, efficiency, and doesn't take itself too seriously. Very close to perfect for its type.

This flick is a privilege to see! It's a complete movie, no gaps, no uncertain scenes, no faulty characters. And it's just a simple - one day in the life of - type of story.

The main character 'Jillian' has reached a wall in her life and is at a loss on how to break through this barrier. She is asked by her friend 'Nancy' for a short favor. Jillian reluctantly agrees to help and in doing so learns a life lesson about herself and others that she believes to be her friends.

The greatest asset to this film is the fantastic dialog the actors expertly deliver and the smooth crisp editing! Even the little children briefly seen are at their best before the camera. And Tippi Hedron as Betty the aged and former movie star is just perfection!

I cannot praise this flick enough as I see it as quite perfect start to finish. Bravo Jay Gammill !!!