Uncle John
Uncle John
| 16 March 2015 (USA)
Uncle John Trailers

In this tale of small town intrigue, an urbanite returns to his quiet hometown on an impromptu trip as his Uncle, widely respected in town, struggles to evade suspicion of a murder.

Reviews
Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
foutainoflife Ok, I am a person who loves horror, suspense, thrillers, psychological and crime movies. I am such a lover that I will give just about anything a chance. I love a good slow burner. Something that I can really get drawn into and I was really hoping that this was going to be one. I am totally disappointed. The film is shot nice. The characters we all spot on in their performances but I can decide what this film was really supposed to be about. There were elements of tension in both stories. The young man trying to get a girl, so there is a lot of sexual tension and cat and mouse sorta being laid out between them. The old man concealing a murder, so there again, noticeable tension. Got it. So. Um. Where is the climatic moment of this movie? It just seemed to drag by for me. I totally hung in there though because I had hopes that everything would fall into place at the end. In all honesty, I was wanting to see the young man step outside and either see his uncle do something or be killed by mistake. So, when it ended I had to do a WTF look around. Look it is an okay movie but not a favorite. Check it out though. A lot of folks really seemed to like it but I just felt let down. I guess I fell victim to either hype or a lack of intelligence on my part.
xhidden99 Maybe it's a good movie maybe it's not. Hard to tell as it has the worst sound editing of any movie ever. When there's dialog you have to crank volume to 11 to hear anything and when there's not, it's so bizarrely loud it actually rattles the windows.Others have noted the 'deliberate', 'slow', 'patient' pace of the movie. Short form, it's boring. Bad writing that can't or won't fill in anything and instead the 'story' relies on the audience to sort of imagine or write their own story and backstory in their heads. And of course long long stretches of sad indie music and tinkling piano keys.Dunno, maybe this blend of art-house indie mumblecore is for some people.
CelluloidDog This actually won an award? Of course, (for cinematography?!) at a small film festival where there isn't much going on. This film is basically about not much. Something about a murder? Maybe. We assume it's a murder but there is no evidence since the film opens with an ambiguous scene. And perhaps the whole film is ambiguous. It's never clear if the opening was a murder, it's never clear to Danny if his brother was murdered. It appears more like Dutch, the town's bully, was depressed and wanted to atone for his misdeeds and doesn't happen upon Uncle John but commits suicide and Uncle John covers it up. The lake was dragged and nothing was discovered. The lead suspect was a dead end. Ben's relationship with Kate is ambiguous. Is it romance or friendship?This film spends most of the movie in limbo, not going anywhere. Like a sailboat with no wind, in dead calm. Ambiguous relationship/romance, ambiguous murder/suicide, ambiguous uncle (he has a hidden side), ambiguous writing, and more. Makes for a below average movie. It's one redeeming quality is the fairly good acting. John Ashton does a solid job of acting (not award-winning but quietly understated) and the young Ben and Kate (Alex Moffat and Jenna Lyng) are charming and have good chemistry. It has interestingly good intentions but just doesn't cut it. It's like the protagonist of the film, the youthful Ben, who is unsure of many things. It lacks confidence and closure. But it tries.Which for me is tragic, since I tend to favor independent and international films, rather than the standard Hollywood fare. But this admittedly does not come close to many good films out there. If you skip this movie, you wouldn't miss anything. Real rating? anywhere from 4.7-5.4.
nowego After reading the reviews (2 of them) and seeing very little negativity about this movie I watched it and happily enjoyed it.Not really a mystery and for most it would be a bit on the slow side, but mature audiences that like a good story would enjoy this.John Ashton of Beverly Hills Cop fame (enjoyed his acting ever since) holds the movie together well.Some of the acting would be regarded by many as a bit amateurish and the movie definitely was shot on a very low budget, but it still holds together well.Give it a try, you will not regret it.