Within (II) (2012) User Reviews

So- so writing of an over used storyline with a couple decent actors

[codefilmmaker-836-506761 · 3/10 · 8 November 2013]

Brent must be a friend of the fimmmakers. Saw this couple weeks ago at the Reel Recovery Film Festival where my film was also playing. Decided to pop in to a few other films and see what else is out there. Some where good, some were decent but forgettable and others not good at all. It's not the type of film festival where you need to be an exceptional film to be accepted but tell a story that relates to addiction, suicide, recovery and those type of themes.Within is the typical lost soul story with a little fantasy twist and redemption is something the audience does like to see however I found this film to be very so so with typical predictable hitting points, very average to weak writing though I have seen worse, and a couple decent actors along with some very bad ones. This was probably a little more of an undertaking than the director/writer/producer/star of the film could handle as his first go around. It is clear Mr. Lane is as green as the color of his film itself. Very green but I do believe the intentions of the story were from a good place. My thoughts of the acting itself. Alex Lane is the director, writer,and lead. Directing is not something you suddenly decide to do one day but it appears that is what he decided. It also appears the film was made so he could be the lead as his credits are very sparse. His acting abilities lack greatly which throws off the entire film. The lead needs to carry the film. The other issue was the believability factor that kept bugging me. Online it says "Robert Barren (28)", which set me up to believe I would be watching a 28 year old man and his struggles. Mr.Lane is clearly around 40 looking in this film whether he is in real life or not and the film is very dark. The secondary lead is Eric Etebari (Robert's father) an actor with a decent resume of small roles and supporting film roles. I wavier on this one. He did a decent job with what he had here. He is the most screen quality actor in the film, a good look and something that does make you want to watch him. However, I am not sure of his acting potential as I look at his resume and demo reel he has a lot of supporting roles and nonsubstantial characters in studio films or indies no one has seen. I don't think this is a fair film to base his dramatic strengths but his hair is a star of its own. Palmer Davis, Deville Vannik, and Elizabeth Bradley did their roles, not terrible, not great. There isn't much to say in their regard. Angela Gots plays Sarah Barren, her acting skills need considerable work. Ironically, I also went to the premiere of Immigrant a couple weeks ago to keep a friend that worked on it company and wrote a review for that as well. Ms. Gots was the worst actor in Immigrant. Just terrible and the only reason she was mildly better in Within is because the role is small and she's not yelling half the film making her bad acting a little less annoying. Within is a very dark film which is helpful at times making it a bit easier to look at her than Immigrant also. This is one homely woman and from the premiere rude and snobby too. Geez Louise. Unless I missed something Sarah is Robert's younger sister. He looks around 40 and she looks over 40, why are they playing 20 somethings? Did I miss something? Is that why it's so dark? Why not just change the ages? Rae Foster and Will Rothhaar were by far my favorites. Rae appears trained maybe too trained where it is showing in her performance she is following her training but I think in time she will fall into her own. I am curious to see how her career turns out. Will I have seen before. I am not sure where but I remember his face and recall thinking he was talented before.

Over all the attempt was decent, the suicide prevention message is admirable and appreciated, but the execution came across as a first attempt. It's not a great film but it is obvious Mr. Lane tried to tell a story while many short films out there look slapped together over the course of a weekend without even trying. It's better to try and stumble and learn than not try at all, message to the thousands of short films slapped together in LA every year!

Love This Poem, Read It to My Children But This Was Just Passable. Pretty Amateurish and A Bit Confusing At Times

[danrinaz · 19 December 2013]

Saw this at the HollyShorts Screening. I have to agree with the other poster it lacks a lot. Almost all the other shorts shown were superior. It has an amateur quality to it. Some parts were making me feel almost sea sick the picture was shaking so much. Other parts looked better but the lightning bolt shaped flashes going back and forth between present and past were only mildly better than the special effects that comes with your computer giving it an amateur quality. Very cheesy. Of course the writing is pretty cheesy and melodramatic too.

The acting. Eh. I agree with the other poster for most parts. Mr. Lane is not lead material. His acting is not strong and the delivery of his lines is off. Eric Etebari plays his father who killed himself 15 years earlier, a drunk, gambler, abusive type. He does a good job for what hes given. There are some really cheesy lines this guy had to say that did make a lot of us laugh. Elizabeth Bradley was a mystical being that comes to save him in an overdone ghost of Christmas past sort of way. She did an OK job. I thought she delivered some good lines mixed in with some that didn't come out right. Especially in the tunnel where she was telling him how to shoot himself correctly and to watch her boots that was good. The most natural actor was Will Rothhaar. His part was small and no cheesy lines is probably why but his acting was more smooth. I also agree with the other poster the worst actor was definitely Angela Gots playing Alex Lane's sister Sarah. She delivers her lines very badly and has no maternal energy at all but the little girl calls her mommy. Cute kid. Most of the lines Angela Gots was given were either relatable can't wait to get home to see someone or missing someone or lines from Edgar Allen Poe's poem A Dream Within A Dream all of which are delivered badly. It's clear she had no understanding of the poem at all, probably never read it before she memorized that stanza if she even knows who Poe is. There was an obvious disconnection between the words she was saying, how she said them, her eyes, body language, and then how she didn't act like a mother or even someone who really likes kids made this scene not work. That isn't how we mothers interact with our children or adults to kids in general. In fact she seemed like she wanted to keep her distance from a very adorable little girl but grimacing through it. Maybe if she had the poem broken down for her in a way she could understand and studied first there would be more connection. I have always loved this poem so I was pretty excited to see someone else in this day and age was inspired by it but it wasn't all there. Everyone else did a good job.

There were things that didn't make sense to me. First in all the synopsis write ups about the film as the poster above me said it marks Robert Barron (Alex Lane) as 28 which he doesn't look I agree with that also. Then he's shown as a child listed as 7 on IMDb though the child himself looks older and his sister Sarah as 5 making them 2 years apart. Then when 5 year old Sarah shows up he says but Sarah wasn't born yet. That makes no sense. If she wasn't born yet why is a 5 year old walking up to their mother right after the fight with their father? If she wasn't born yet then why are they listed as children 2 years apart, they would be at least 7 years apart not 2 if he was 7 and she wasn't alive. Then if you flash forward to adult Sarah (Angela Gots) that would make her either 26 or 21 present day according to their timeline with him being 28 with an approximately 7 year old child of her own making her giving birth at 19 or 14? To make matters worse not only does Alex Lane not look 28 but playing Angela Gots at 26 let alone 21 is ridiculous. They are clearly far past both these ages. My best guess Mr. Lane is in his very late 30s maybe 40 and Ms. Gots is a few years older. Even the dark lighting couldn't hide the deep lines and wrinkles that steal our beautiful youthful skin away from us. It got more confusing for me though as earlier on Robert Barren says he is going to kill himself 15 years after his father killed himself so I assume there was a few years in between the time shown at 7 and when his father killed himself. There was mention of the mother dying and they went gambling I think. It was very confusing. It wasn't very well constructed as you can tell from all my questions. This made it hard to ignore the amateur qualities as it is a short film this isn't a 60 mil budget Lee Daniels film and pay attention to the admirable qualities.

The only other thing that bothered me was the casting. I kept thinking these parents would never make these grown children. The younger children were closer to the parents but would never grow up to look like their adult counterparts. They were far too cute. The movie was just alright for me. Some scenes I enjoyed others were hard to watch and the confusion just made it harder. I had a lot of questions.

Short film rich in production value and inspiration

[brentnhunter13 · 10/10 · 23 October 2012]

Alex Lane shares his vast talent in his short film "Within" as the writer, director, producer and lead actor. He achieved rich production value in many areas such as production design, lighting and locations. There's a bit of the inspiration as we saw in the classic "It's a Wonderful Life" here after Alex took on some very tough and serious subjects. Alex was able to attract amazing actors to join the production. Especially notable were Eric Etebari("") and Elizabeth Bradley (WB's "Vega v. Vega"). Wish real life always had the positive ending like this. I highly recommend seeing this film. Hope to see the full length version soon. Definitely not suitable for children.

Great effort despite its flaws

[RelaxRelateRejoice · 10/10 · 27 December 2013]

While I do agree that there are several elements in this short that could have been better executed and that the dialogue was a bit too much on the nose for me as well, I definitely think it's a good thing that I was left with questions I wanted to ask the filmmakers about the film after seeing it at Hollyshorts. In this day and age where everything is laid out for you, I enjoy films that leave me thinking about life. Isn't that what shorts and indies are about?

Lame to attack Alex Lane's or Angela Gots' age. For the record, both are 31. Easy to find that info: google anyone?

Yes, Alex Lane bit off more than he could chew. This was a complex piece and he probably should have let someone else with more experience direct it. But, unlike the other critics here, I spoke to him after the Hollyshorts screening, and he told me that the short was closely based on a personal story and that it meant too much too him at that time to let someone else direct it, although in hindsight he also believes that he should have stuck to just acting and producing the piece as he hadn't directed anything before it and that, besides the film, he felt that he came way too short on his performance. The man is honest about his shortcomings. Rare for Hollywood filmmakers. We all have to start somewhere. I don't know about you, but a short distributed on VOD, DVD, TV and IPads is a pretty legit start to me.

All in all, I enjoyed the story. It's got a positive message and shows us how we can sometimes be stuck in negative repeating cycles of our parents and their ancestors, and what the consequences of that can be. The tunnel sequence is pure brilliance, and the final scene of the film very Lynchian. Curious to see what he'll do next.