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(No spoliers) Spike Lee movies are either fantastic 5 stars, or mediocre 1-2 stars, never in between. He has quite the resume, and most of his films are hits. Well, sorry to say but this one is a failure. The opening scene is promising. There's imagery and sound that is classic Spike Lee and I got a very good feeling the first couple minutes. But then it turns in to a filmed stage play that I kept waiting to end and the real movie get started, maybe follow the main characters through their lives. "Oh these guys are aspiring actors, let's see what happens in real life." Nope. The play IS the movie. To add insult to injury, the entire film just focuses on the two main characters who talk a lot of super unrealistic dialogue. Imagine if Woody Allen wrote the most stereotypically bad movie possible, like offensive parody bad. This would be it. I struggled to make it half way through the film and I just couldn't take it anymore. It's a 1 star movie. I gave an extra star for a certain level of creativity that may appeal to some dumb people the same way Woody Allen movies do (never appealed to me), the acting of the two main characters isn't necessarily bad, they did what they could with it, and it is an entire feature film with a cast of only four actors. Not easy to pull off, obviously, because even Spike Lee sure couldn't.

(No spoilers) Pretty simple and somewhat predictable story, could be summed up in a couple sentences. Ed Norton is fantastic as always, Evan Rachel Wood is always good too. Supporting cast are great actors, but minimally featured, with the focus mostly on the main actors, especially Ed Norton's character. The scenery is beautifully filmed, and the camera work is top notch. For such a simple movie with a small cast, it just works. Definitely worth a watch. One of Ed Norton's lesser known features.

(No spoilers) I started this with no intentions on liking or finishing it because most movies nowadays are huge disappointments. I was surprised that A-list actor Willem Dafoe would be in such a film, and he did fantastic as always. Everyone in this film is 100% believable, to the point this could have been a documentary and not a movie. It's also tough to find young kids that age who don't appear to be faking or over dramatizing it. A+ on the casting. Bravo for the actors. They all have great careers ahead of them. There's not much empathy for the annoying lowlife mother character played by Bria Vinaite, but she played the part convincingly well. (Once again, NO spoilers) There's a part where the main character little girl played by Brooklynn Prince is filmed up close while her and the mother are eating in a hotel restaurant. It almost appears like candid audition footage. By far my favorite scene from this film. The supporting actors were all perfectly cast and played their parts brilliantly too. The cinematography is great, the scenery and landscape are captured well, lots of colors and visuals, very pleasing to the eye. As stated in other reviews, this movie is not for everyone. It's pretty raw and straightforward, gives you a glimpse in to the lifestyle of cheap motel life in Central Florida, and it's not always pleasant. But I really enjoyed watching it and hopefully you do too.