RipDelight
This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
Raymond Sternadel
I really didn't think I was going to like this movie but by the end I was pleasantly surprised. It left me thinking and wondering which is something I really enjoy getting from a movie. It's a bit artsy and snobby in my opinion which is why it wasn't perfect but stick it out and you may be pleasantly surprised by the end.
Eoghan McCarthy
This movie is absolutely terrible. Terrible acting, terrible nose, stupid ideas, and completely unconvincing.From the very beginning I was completely and utterly disinterested and giggling at the attempts at "clever" and "cool"... ironic really as the most unconvincing cult leader actually references "Intellectual Bullshit" which this terrible movie comprises mostly of... or attempts at said bullshit.Maggie, the tramp from the future, 2054 to be precise... and we know this because of a symbolic stick-anchor tattoo on her ankle (where else would you have such a tattoo, being from the future and all) is the least convincing cult leader / messiah-type I have ever seen in a movie, or even heard about.The secret handshake... the attempts to shock... the complete and utter disregard for how convincing cults actually are... this shows that humans can be less than stupid.... and in 40 years time there is little access to MUSIC?!?!!?! She didn't actually remember for god's sake.Terrible movie. Maggie is a terrible character.. ALL the actors are worthless / useless.Oh... and I bet The Cranberries MIGHT have something to say about futuristic bint brainwashing them with 'The Cranberries'.
Robert J. Maxwell
That rating -- seven -- is tentative because I nodded out about half way through. It was certainly not the fault of the film, which begins slowly but gradually turns fairly gripping.Two journalists -- a young couple -- decide to investigate a cult in Los Angeles, using spy cams and writing notes on the sly, while pretending to become devoted members. After they are introduced to the basics -- the complicated handshakes, the mandated pre-meeting shower, the wearing of flowing white garb -- they are introduced to "Maggie," who claims to be from the future, having been born in something like 2040.The male mole is Christopher Denham and he seems to enter the thrall of Maggie, weeping while she explores his past at a meeting, vomiting on cue, and so forth. He's accused by his partner, Nicole Vicius, of becoming brainwashed, but although his performances during the sessions are convincing, so are his explanations to Vicius - that it's all part of the act, designed to maintain rapport with the cult.Vicius finally decides that the rapport he's trying to achieve has more to do with Maggi than with the cult and she throws him out of her apartment on his behind. This is a reasonable enough conclusion on her part. Denham may be good at rationalization but Maggie is something else. She's play by Brit Marling, who also had a hand in the screenplay. You ought to see her. She has a fine figure, strong, arresting features, long tresses the color of a Van Gogh wheat field, and a soothing but penetrating FM-radio kind of voice. Any normal man would want to throw himself at her feet and grovel while licking her tarsals.However, she doesn't like cyncism and although she never obviously floods out with anger, she tosses out one poor Chinese kid who asks her to sing a song from the future. After she complies and comes up with some feel-good folksy tune, getting the whole group to sing along with her on the second run, the Oriental gentleman points out that this song was written in the 1990s. She has a ready explanation, she continues smiling, her mien remains unruffled, but boy does she get rid of that Wog kid fast.I was getting drowsy about the time she invited Denham into her private boudoir. I was hoping for the usual orgiastic coupling but instead, Maggie whips out a cigarette and tells Denham that either he kidnaps one of his eight-year-old students (he's a teacher) or he's blackballed. At that point, eurythmic breathing set in. This damned narcolepsy.Not being able to see the wind up was really a nuisance too. The story had a personal fascination built into it. For one thing, I'd known one of the girls who was a suicide in the Heaven's Gate Cult. For another I'd taught a seminar on cult behavior and nobody could come up with any consistent explanations for cult formation and recruitment. And the head of my committee in graduate school was the world's leading authority on institutionalized vomiting. Finally, with the exception of Brit Marling's magnetism, which her cock eyes and slight lisp only enhance, it was beginning to remind me a great deal of Ayn Rand's clique back in the 40s and 50s.If it's on again, I'll certainly try to catch it. It looked promising.
Crazyfilm Reviewer
As for the Film itself it is not great. Very slow and kinda boring. Reading other reviews of this film there seems to be a lot or in most cases too much thought put into the ending. ******Spoilers and my own take on the films ending coming up so turn back now if you have not watched it *******OK so here it goes. This is what the film is about for me. It is a pretty simple take and what i thought of straight away as i watched the film. There is no time travel nonsense. Maggie is a nut job. Wanted by the law and on the run. She set all of this up to kidnap and get her daughter back. Yes i think abigail was her daughter. Abigail's parents got divorced and the dad got custody. The reason how abigail knew the handshake is cause maggie her mother taught it to her when she was younger. Maybe her dad still uses it with her. we don't know. Abigail cant remember her moms face cause she was too young. . Thats it film was rubbish.
