Customer Reviews

Redemption [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

"Redemption" feels familiar but smells new. It is basically a "Less Than Zero" LA rich kids story with a twist: all of the rich kids are black. This movie is low-budget but well done. It is horrifyingly shocking in some parts, sometimes heart-warming and never slow. The directing, writing and acting are a cut above movies in this genre (I think I've seen Brian White on TV a couple of times) and budget range. If you like brave attempts in independent filmaking, you'll dig this. There are two scenes that are ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL by ANY DEFINITION: the agent and the casting director. You'll see.

I had the pleasure of screening an early version of this film and was quite impressed. Being of an older demographic, I admittedly expected to be "lost" with the storyline. And while perhaps I couldn't relate to the characters, I was pleasantly surprised that I actually cared about them, which is a testament to the excellent directing and writing. Overall, I found the film to be quite impressive and recommend it without hesitation.

Redemption: Review
By Ann Olivia

This is the debut film of Sean Reid, a fresh young talented Director -Writer and Producer.
Redemption is loosely based on his true story, of his struggle with lifes promise, pain and addiction.

The film delves into Christians (a twenty-something African American played by Brian White) search for truth, forgiveness and love by exploring his relationship with a young woman he meets at a party. Redemption takes us into the lives of the creative artists, wanna- bees, and hangers on, who live on the extreme edge of the highly glamorized world of the entertainment business in Hollywood.

Christians father, his girlfriend and his good friends, try desperately to save him from his spiral into self pity, when a much desired big break in Hollywood is lost to him by his refusal pay back a favor. The choice has devastating consequences for his career. His success quickly unravels. The deal and relationship with his Mega- agent are un-done.

He is driven deeper into his addiction to drugs and alcohol, and thus begins a cruel journey to self-destruction.

In the end, the film makes clear, that redemption must be granted by oneself, to oneself.
It speaks to its generation but the problems it addresses are not new.

The film uses a hybrid documentary style to explore the world of sexually addictive relationships and abusive behaviors lurking just behind the scenes in Hollywood. It makes excellent use of unusual camera angles, a gritty and edgy editing style to overcome the limitations of a low budget production.
The young actors playing the lead characters of Clare and Christian, have a luminous on-screen presence and offer powerful and gripping performances.

A must see film, for a powerful look at the underbelly of the in-crowd and hip hop hype of the entertainment business, mixed with drugs and the superficial values of our culture - a brew that gets some in our society caught - up and lost in a world of abuse and dreams of fame.

By Ann Olivia

This is the debut film of Sean Reid, a fresh young talented Director -Writer and Producer.
Redemption is loosely based on his true story, of his struggle with life's promise, pain and addiction.

The film delves into Christian's (a twenty-something African American played by Brian White) search for truth, forgiveness and love by exploring his relationship with a young woman he meets at a party. Redemption takes us into the lives of the creative artists, wanna- bees, and hangers on, who live on the extreme edge of the highly glamorized world of the entertainment business in Hollywood.

Christian's father, his girlfriend and his good friends, try desperately to save him from his spiral into self pity, when a much desired big break in Hollywood is lost to him by his refusal pay back a favor. The choice has devastating consequences for his career. His success quickly unravels. The deal and relationship with his Mega- agent are un-done.

He is driven deeper into his addition to drugs and alcohol, and thus begins a cruel journey to self-destruction.

In the end, the film makes clear, that redemption must be granted by oneself, to oneself.
It speaks to its generation but the problems it addresses are not new.

The film uses a hybrid documentary style to explore the world of sexually addictive relationships and abusive behaviors lurking just behind the scenes in Hollywood. It makes excellent use of unusual camera angles, a gritty and edgy editing style to overcome the limitations of a low budget production.
The young actors playing the lead characters of Clare and Christian, have a luminous on-screen presence and offer powerful and gripping performances.

A must see film, for a powerful look at the underbelly of the in-crowd and hip hop hype of the entertainment business, mixed with drugs and the superficial values of our culture - a brew that gets some in our society caught - up and lost in a world of abuse and dreams of fame.

This film caught my attention with its impacting dialogues and wide range of emotional scenes - from humor, bitterness, angst, desire, loss, to friendship. In its edginess, Redemption allows the audience to glimpse the fastlane of an aspiring actor, who's just trying to 'make it' in the world.

Truly, this is a terrible movie.
As lower-budget, artsy movies go, and I am a big fan of them, this is the worst one I have seen. This is an age old message in a time when I would hope that the young & restless in Hollywood are getting to be a little smarter.
There were parts of this movie that seemed not to belong and made no sense. Women are shown being verbally abused and basically made to look like complete doormats. Also, if the storyline was trying to shed any light on interracial relationships, they were left in the dark.
Going on reviews from this board, I was expecting an emotionally charged movie with strong acting.
I was sadly disappointed.

I caught this film through a buddy of mine and I was quite suprised. Although the script was a bit muddled at times the acting overcame it and made it quite an interesting flick. The character Marlon, I believe his name was Scott Tate, stole every scene he was he was in. But the character Claire, who was played by Tracey Stone- gave the most compelling performance in the film. It was hard at times to have feelings for the lead actor, but she showed true emotion and heart to lead me to think that this guy was worth feeling for. The director showed poise to keep this story together, but I'll have my eye on Ms. Stone and Mr. Tate.

This film is one of the worst I have seen. I really don't know what other films Sean Reid has produced but this one was kind of bad. The film opens up by saying it's based on true events, so you wonder is it based on Sean Reid's young life trying to pursue acting. To me this film was pointless. It's named Redemption, redemption from what? It shows Christian, played by Brian White, going through depressive pshycotic episodes trying to find his way in life. The only scenes I liked were between him and his father. The conversations between them were very meaningful with Christian trying to get through to his father, which lets you in on his family history, and his father trying to help his son cope with life. Christian is battling many demons; his father not being a good example in his life, his mother not being there, his struggle to pursue acting, and trying to find love. This all leads to Christian making poor decisions. He starts partying and getting in stupid fights. He starts to take a turn for the worse when he meets this actor who can get him a gig and starts using marijuana. One of his friends, the guy who plays Marlon, acts like a total jerk and disrepects women and his girlfriend puts up with it. It was ridiculous. Melique, another one of Christian's friends stops hanging with them when he sees that they are starting to make wrong decisions. Realizing this, Christian finds Melique. Melique tries to redeem Christian from himself by having a serious heart to heart talk with him. You would think that since the movie is named "Redemption" that Christian at this point would turn his life around. He does find hope again and wants to start a new life with his girlfriend (Claire). It doesn't last long when Trent (a foe of his) spots him and beats him up. Then the downward spiral begins again. Christian starts getting high and starts having hallucinations. He has a mental breakdown and starts doing strange things. He think he sees Trent and goes out in a rage with a knife in his hand running around town half naked. When the police officers can't get through to him he gets shot.

Overall this movie was bizarre and kind of a waste of time. Some scenes didn't make sense and it was very overdramatic.

A gritty story such as this needs amazing actors and actresses to pull it off. And despite a pretty much no name cast, they certainly do. TJ Storm was fantastic as Melique (a bit underutilized perhaps). Tracey Stone is also very compelling as Claire. And hopefully people won't overlook Scottie Tate, who was simply outstanding and genuinely funny.

I could have done without the timecode credits, which greatly distracted me from the first scene. Also I didn't particularly care for the picture in picture editting (think PhoneBooth with Colin Farrell). The dialogue also got very heavy handed at times.

Still this is a very compelling movie which sets it apart from the average cookie cutter flick.

This movie was terrible, and I would surmise that all positive reviewers are somehow affiliated with this self-indulgent, mastabatory piece of crap. It was really, really awful. If you enjoy melodrama, poor directing or over-acting, then this is the film for you.

Every moment of the film is fraught with angst with a capital "a." I was only happy when the main character got gunned down in the end. Don't worry-- I haven't spoiled anything. By the time it happens, you won't care either.