| A- | Austin Film Festival 2026 |
I could not find a trailer or much information about this film before the festival, and was concerned it would be a cheesy comedy with no depth. I needn’t have worried. This was a superb film, and it really drew me in emotionally.
The script was sharp and really examined class and race issues through this hook. The lead actress (who co-wrote the script) was fantastic! The special effects for the star ratings looked great. And there was a moment during the climax where there was a pause in the action and I was holding my breath in anticipation.
During the Q&A I learned several interesting things:
- The main family in the film are an actual family. Mom and dad wrote the script, dad directed, all four starred. Mom, dad, and daughter have substantial lists of projects on their IMDB pages.
- The first iteration of this movie was a short film, released in 2016. Then eventually expanded into this feature film 10 years later. (As the kids kept getting older and production kept getting delayed, they had to keep rewriting the kids’ scenes.)
- Dad said he had to work with an SFX house to develop a whole new process for the star ratings over peoples’ heads. Especially tracking the actors’ movements to keep the stars in the exact same place and angled properly. I thought it worked really well.
Clip (sorry for the strange format)
