A prestigious attorney colludes with his impulsive brother to hide a manslaughter, but when an innocent is charged, their plans spiral out of control, leading to moral reckoning and inevitable judgment.

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Review by Victoria Angelique:

The feature film, THE LAST RECKONING, is an intense story that uses expert storytelling to take the audience on thrilling mystery from beginning to end. The film begins with a girl taking a snake ring off an unknown murdered man, she is dirty and the first question is if this man’s victim or if there is something more at play. The film unwinds to reveal that there is always more to the story.

This film answers the question if criminals have a moral code, when they have to question their entire world after an innocent person is arrested for the murder they committed. The story takes cues from classic Hollywood films, interweaving the plot into a modern depiction of a film noir. Many films today seem to have clear cut good guys and bad guys, but THE LAST RECKONING will have the audience questioning the motives and reasonings of the murderers where their humanity will be seen over the crime and framing of an innocent person.

The intense plot is only enhanced by the limited locations depicted through the film. The majority of the story is in one house, with only a handful of scenes depicted outside this location. This helps add to the psychological drama that drives the story because each person is forced to deal with the consequences and if it is worth it.

The film wraps up nicely with the final revenge, again going back to the way films used to be written. The moral code is questioned, but it still proves that no one can truly get away with murder because someone always knows who is guilty and who is innocent. THE LAST RECKONING is a must watch for anyone that loves the feel of classic films and is looking for a film that will make everyone think about the thin gray lining between good and bad.

From A Nightmare Of A Possible Not Too Distant Future….

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Review by Parker Jesse Chase:

They Are Killing Us declares its intentions with an utmost unflinching clarity. This is not a film that eases the audience in. This is a short drawing from the living archive of human atrocity; intertwining the use of audio, claymation, and layers of mixed-media animation into something that feels like an alarming notice. Filmmaker Maurice Cormier showcases what we are about to experience is not abstraction. These are events happening in real time, in the present state of the world. The screen is no longer a safe distance to live.

A sphere of orange clay suspends in darkness. In fact, it pulses. The camera moves toward it in rhythmic cuts, closing the gap between the viewer and the violence with each heartbeat. When the sphere is sliced and blood begins to seep through its cracks, the metaphor needs no translation: this is a world bleeding. This is the earth as a body. This is humanity at its core.

The violence and innocence intertwined is where the groundbreaking imagery lives.

The choice of clay is childlike in texture and innocent in its associations. This sits in deliberate tension with what social commentary it is made to depict. Orange, is the color of decay and warning, bleeds across the canvas in layers of spray paint until the frame itself is consumed. This is a visual argument for saturation: the world has absorbed so much violence that it can no longer contain it. Cormier understands the medium is the message. Animation, particularly in this hand-crafted form, grants access to the unbearable. This artistic choice allows the filmmaker to go where live action cannot.

The film’s structure is cumulative and relentless by design. A god-like figure enters who is imposing and unclear of intentions. However, is put down by gunfire before the eye can fully register him. Limbs fall. Bodies wrapped in gauze populate the frame in rows of pure death and decay. A human silhouette crosses the screen engulfed in flame, then falls. Couples burn in each other’s arms. The sphere, now split, reveals muscle-like tissue connecting its severed halves. This is the final image of a world torn apart but still, grotesquely, holding on. And then the heart monitor flatlines.

By the time you realize you are only three and a half minutes into a five-minute film, Cormier has already accomplished something remarkable: he has made the viewer feel the exhaustion of living inside an ongoing catastrophe. The pause you take to breathe is not incidental. It is the film working exactly as intended.

The audio is the film’s spine. Screams that may well be real, gunshots that accumulate past the point of shock into something closer to demise, and a sound design that scratches at the nervous system. Cormier leads the viewer’s distress entirely through sound. The design is deliberately, masterfully uncomfortable.

The mixed-media approach between the use of clay, paint, and layered animation is not simply stylistic indulgence. This is the precise tool the subject demands. This range of texture and form is what allows a film this unflinching to be experienced rather than merely endured.

The camera implicates extreme close-ups on pools of blood, the steady rhythmic cuts synced to a heartbeat, each visual handcrafted and intentional. Every compositional choice narrows the distance between screen and viewer. Cormier puts you directly in the shoes of those undergoing the violence, and he achieves this with precision.

The childlike quality of the medium pressed against the enormity of its subject creates a dissonance that is the film’s defining achievement. They Are Killing Us is not an easy film. It is not meant to be. It is a call to awareness in the form of a five-minute confrontation. This short intrudes with violence until it ultimately flatlines, leaving behind the question it has been asking all along: what are you going to do about it? Maurice Cormier has made something visceral, necessary, and genuinely haunting. The innocence of its form and the brutality of its content are not in conflict. That tension is the point. That tension is the film.

Ten minutes before showtime, a theatre group unravels into warm-up disasters, personal drama and backstage chaos as they scramble to survive opening night.

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Review by Parker Jesse Chase:

ACT! drops you backstage ten minutes before showtime and keeps you there, between the chaos and the clock. This story unfolds into a disarmingly funny, quietly devastating, and painfully human experience: a portrait of people who have rehearsed for weeks and are still, somehow, completely unprepared for the moment in front of them. Not because they lack talent. But because they are human, and being human is the one thing no amount of rehearsal can fix.

At its center is Oscar, an actor whose need for validation becomes the film’s beating heart. As the countdown to curtain accelerates, he moves through the ensemble like a question mark. He goes about asking each person the same thing: “…do you think I’m a good actor?” A small question carrying weight. Imposter syndrome made flesh. The film understands this hunger for reassurance is the cost of caring deeply about something that offers no guarantees.

The ensemble surrounding him is a theatre company in full motion: egos flowering, anxieties spiking, romances unraveling in real time. An affair surfaces between scene partners. A rehearsed line mispronounced becomes a whole Abbott and Costello routine. Rituals collide. Personalities ignite. Overlapping, escalating, and gloriously unhinged. The film leans into madness with the filmmaker’s intention. The overwhelm is not accidental. It mirrors exactly what it feels like to be inside a theatre ten minutes before the doors open.

Beneath the comedy, ACT! is a film about what it means to pour yourself into a collaborative art. One built on shared delusion, collective vulnerability, and the strange intimacy of performing for strangers. Theatre demands you be simultaneously exposed and invisible, sincere and pretend. The film holds this contradiction with real tenderness.

Each of the characters are sketched with enough specificity to feel true without tipping into complete caricature. Oscar’s spiral is handled with a light touch that makes the eventual blow land harder: when the verdict on his talent finally comes, delivered by someone who has no reason to be kind, it hits not just him but the audience.

The filmmaker demonstrates a confident command of controlled chaos. Scenes bounce and overlap, voices compete, the camera moves through the space as if it too is trying to keep up. Yet, nothing feels lost. There is intention behind every collision, every interruption, every character who drifts in and out of frame. The pacing is precise in a way that disguises how precise it is; the hallmark of direction that trusts its material.

The film’s final reveal that no one is outside, that the audience they have been preparing for does not exist. The rejection was always coming. The director’s decision to let them perform anyway, to give them their five minutes, reframes the entire film. The joy of the work, it turns out, was never contingent on the audience showing up in the first place.

ACT! is uncomfortably funny and truthful in the best tradition of theatre itself. It understands the people drawn to this art form are a particular kind of person: eccentric, anxious, generous, egotistical, desperately in love with something that will not always love them back. & it treats all of them, even the difficult ones, with real affection.

CHICAGO FEEDBACK Film Festival 5 STAR Review

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Excellent experience! So glad I found this festival, I will definitely submit future projects. #feedbackfilmfestival #filmfreeway

FEMALE Feedback Festival 5 STAR Testimonial

Deadline Today to submit via #FilmFreeway. 92 FIVE Star Reviews! https://filmfreeway.com/FEEDBACKFemaleFilmFestivalFFFF

I was so honored and grateful to be a part of this festival! As a first-timer I truly appreciated all of the encouragement and support from the festival, including the wonderful supportive materials they make available (review, blog, podcast, viewer feedback…) beyond the screening. Wholeheartedly recommend! #femalefilmfestival #filmfestival

EXPERIMENTAL/DANCE/MUSIC 5 STAR Testimonial

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Our experience with the Experimental, Dance & Music Film Festival was truly exceptional. The audience feedback format created a rare and meaningful connection between filmmakers and viewers. Watching people emotionally engage with our film and discuss its visual language and atmosphere was incredibly inspiring.

The feedback video was thoughtfully produced, professional, and genuinely valuable for independent filmmakers. The communication, organization, and overall artistic environment of the festival were outstanding. We are deeply grateful to the festival team for supporting and promoting independent cinema with such passion and care. #experimentalfestival #filmfreeway #festivaldeadline

WILDsound Festival 5 Star Testimonial

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Loved how expansive the festival is-including a screening, a review, a podcast interview, and audience feedback. All played a really big role in getting more eyes on the film! #wildsound #filmfestival #filmfreeway

THRILLER/SUSPENSE Festival 5 STAR Testimonial.

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The leaders of the Thriller/Suspense Festival are awesome. It’s really a good festival. They’re responsive and their focus is truly all about the films and filmmakers. You won’t be disappointed #thriller #filmfreeway

Your Friends & Neighbors season 2 – one minute review

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Showcase of the best EUROPEAN SHORT FILMS in the world today.

Audience Awards:
Best Short Film: SANGUIS
Best Direction: based on a fake story
Best Performances: ONE LOVE
Best Documentary: DOCPOL-1 NATION 4 CITIES
Best Story: A COLD WINTER AFTERNOON

SANGUIS, 3min., UK
Directed by Szilard Pusztai
A man is haunted by his own demon that creates psychological visions. Which creates an unease feeling.

https://www.instagram.com/ember.production

A COLD WINTER AFTERNOON, 4min., Spain
Directed by Miguel Ángel Mengó
Lucía and Teresa are experiencing a cold winter afternoon like any other, until…

https://www.instagram.com/mv.audiovisuales

DOCPOL-1 NATION 4 CITIES, 42min., Italy
Directed by Simona Mancini
A journey all around the beauty and the historic past of Poland. Museums, historic sites of Krakow, Warsaw, Gdansk and Wrocław.

https://www.instagram.com/filmpollution

ONE LOVE, 3min., Portugal
Directed by José Augusto Carvalho
The girl goes to see the boy by the river. She questions him, but he hardly pays any attention to her, clutching his smartphone. This is how loneliness and emptiness arise, this is how we lose human empathy.

based on a fake story, 5min., Portugal
Directed by José Augusto Carvalho
A man returns after years away, doesn’t recognise himself and feels like a stranger in his hometown.