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Reviews
Mr. Happy (2015)
Great!
Clever. Truly clever. A great twist-on-the-end finish. The best part of the ending is inarguably the pay-off scene when (Spoiler Alert) we discover the artist's true passion. Finally, great acting and production values - with the exception: Due to poor revelation through editing and camera angles, it is not well-revealed who the hit person is. In the dark gas station, where a girl enters a truck, it's not immediately clear who she is or why she's fleeing. (And maybe, in post production, producers could have removed the painful sounding "clack"- heard when the murderess bangs her teeth into the wine bottle. Redacting that disturbing, undermining noise would have taken only a minute to edit away; this isn't news to anyone who has even the most rudimentary video editing equipment.)
Restoration (2016)
Lessons to be learned
Abjectly, written and directed. This movie serves as a strong lesson to anyone who plans to write and/or direct a screenplay: "live" within the story – for an extended period of time - before production starts. (It's inside where you'll lay witness to any flaws.)
In this debacle, the couple should not have been so loving. Clearly a better scenario: he should have been a belligerent, ill-deserving drunk while she should have come across as an overachieving female who, as a consequence of a flawed facet of her otherwise perfect personality, has made a terrible choice in a partner. (After this hated husband meets an audience-approved demise, a brother arrives to fill the void
only to meets his own grizzly death.)
Having the too-loving husband quiver like a trembling leaf - as his wife faces a threat (with the assailant's knife a foot from her throat) – only detracted further from this downslide tale. One small thing: In a nighttime bedroom scene, is a lovely and calming blue light illuminating the window's curtains. Presumably, production assistants realized too late the mistake, so in post-production – like putting a Band-Aid on the Titanic- they dubbed in (mild) sounds of thunder. Didn't work. Dear director, as you read this
Your attempt underscores and asserts the aforementioned, hard truth that writers and directors must live within a screenplay. Stop daydreaming of award ceremonies and consider only the story and its elements. Better luck to you, sir.