This easily one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Bad acting, bad directing, bad writing, just so mediocre. The girl has one annoying expression and every move she makes is so bizarrely premeditated. It's like the actress is directing every move she makes in her head "now i'm going to walk down the street....I hope the director likes my cute walk" The guy is just boring and the work friend has really bad lines to deliver. I liked the character Isabelle - she was authentic and believable.The story is completely worthless....yada yada yada. I lasted half way thru, tried skipping ahead a bit and things just got worse. Had to turn it off.

If I wasn't working while watching this I'd have passed out from boredom by minute 20.
Call me crazy, but In my world, I feel it would be helpful to portray the female love interest as a bit attractive or even slightly fun to be around. She was just an annoying, snide, boring, know-it-all, wannabe artsy hipster bitch - which made her completely socially repellant, obviously, and in turn, made the entire plot fall apart, because no person in their right mind would like this girl, let alone be enamored with her, as we're supposed to believe our protagonist is.
Terrible story, terrible acting, terrible directing, terrible cast -- terrible movie all around. It amazes me how garbage like this gets produced.

I really enjoyed this film - the story was cute, and it definitely captured what it feels like living and working in the insurance capital. Also, Hartfordites will love this - Hartford looks beautiful in the movie. They definitely made it shine like the "Rising Star" it is!

Truly one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I've never posted a movie review before, but I felt compelled to say something. The acting was terrible. The female lead in particular. The male lead was only marginally better. Dreadfully boring plot and poorly written dialog. The female character has zero likability. Chock full of cliches. Not even worth a free viewing.

the conflict seemed to be resolved for the lead character. Hard for me to understand as a "conflict" since I was paid less than nothing for decades of slave labor enriching homosexist narcophony elites in an exclusive homosexuality requiring state Loonie Verse Itty town. Interesting character development film for those who understand the "conflict" presented and resolved.

Really was not that great. I didn't see the characters as very realistic. POSSIBLE SPOILER: The way the movie ended, for her to actually understand/accept the text he sent (it is implied she does) goes against her character the entire rest of the movie. :P

It's sort of making fun of him for being responsible and wanting to keep a job, but I'm not sure how things worked in HER magical little world. I was left wondering how she paid for her apartment. Or was is subsidized housing?

Really they were so different, it's hard for me to envision any kind of happy ending for them as a couple. :P

Exactly as described, this movie is a little quirky but manages to keep our attention. I loved that the city of Hartford, CT (where I lived many years) is featured almost as a supporting character. The acting sometimes seemed to be a little too staged, but overall I came away from it with a great feeling and a smile.

I watched this movie for the Hartford shots and was not disappointed. But it was a struggle to get through this. "Rising Star" has a strong case of bad acting mixed with worse characters. Our protagonist is utterly predictable - the plot is cliché. Spending all his time at a job he hates, he's lost any passion for life. Naturally, a free-spirited Manic Pixie Dream Girl (you can tell right off the bat by her curly hair and constant impish smile) has to be the one to reform him. His racism does not seem to be seen as needing to be reformed (he's afraid of being on a city bus because it's full of people of color).

It's a cheap device to use the female character in order to reform the lead male. She's left as half a character - all we know is that she likes walking around in Hartford, and is a "performer." The rap scene at the end was atrocious, and insulting. I'm not sure how the plot can expect to answer the problem of having to work at a job you hate by demanding a better deal from your boss (and somehow not get fired in the process, in the middle of layoffs when your work performance has been awful), but it's so unrealistic it's ludicrous.

I expected the poor film quality, as it was an indie film, but I didn't expect the poor acting and the awful screenplay. But Hartford looks great.

Small update: it's perplexing to me that the two people to downvote review this as "unhelpful" were the movie's two main actors & writers. Guys, part of being a writer is being able to accept criticism, and I feel that your disingenuous response by calling this review "unhelpful" says a lot about the immaturity of the writers. Take constructive criticism for what it is, it will get you a lot further with the community than disingenuous vote manipulation.