Student Film Reviews

Film reviews from theaters, couches, and film festivals

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1. Ian Overton 02.27.20 / 7pm

   Great review Mathew! Really appreciated your recounting of the directors relationship to the movie as a whole. When embarking upon a grand project such as the development of a movie, having close emotionally ties to it is essential. This harrowing tale must’ve been a product of inner strength and fortuity which makes it sound rather compelling.
2. Karina Sosa 02.28.20 / 11pm

   Back Towards Light (Halonen, 2018): Finland is a film that ventures into the grim world of human slavery. Marissa has gone through an unimaginable experience. Marissa believes one can find light at the end of the tunnel if one leaves the bad behind and looks ahead to a better future. I believe this film is very important since it discusses a very important topic (human trafficking). The characters are very passionate they dramatize every scene. The camera angles are very well used they focus on the main subject. The lighting is also perfect, dark when it’s supposed to be dark and light when it’s supposed to be light! I enjoyed watching this film I would most definitely rate it a 10 out of 10!
3. Odalis Pacheco Mendez 03.06.20 / 1pm

   Back Towards Light (Halonen, 2018): Finland sounds like an interesting film just by reading your review. The concepts you used to show what they used to film this film was very straight forward. For example, the elements of the film that were brought out in the film. This shows how the color or tone of lighting was very important to understand the concept and the importance of the film. This seems like they used a lot of close ups and far away filming structures to make it more realistic since the topic is human trafficking.
4. taylortibbels 03.06.20 / 8pm

   I have never seen this myself so after reading your review I feel very informed as to what went on. It caught my surprise when you brought up Marissa carrying the viewer through her worst nightmare. I wondered why any person could do that to another and for what reason exactly. It also was cool to see that you noticed the colors of the film having an impact on it as a whole. I overall really enjoyed reading this as it was very simple and to the point but also let me understand the film.
5. Kess 03.09.20 / 8am

   Awesome Review! Personally, I haven’t seen Back Towards Light (Halonen, 2018) but this review depicts the film as super interesting. Especially after reading that Arto Halonen is returning to the Santa Barbara Film Festival with a previous successful film already under his belt. Something that stands out to me in the review was when you mentioned color. I think using the different shades to represent the scenes is a fresh idea. I am intrigued to view this film now after reading this short but sweet review. Thank you so much for sharing! – Jack Kesselring
6. StefanJ27 03.10.20 / 9pm

   Hi Matheus,
   Great review, thanks for sharing it. I was intrigued of Arto Halonen’s ability to bring to light societal problems, and to hear that this film was based on true events added more emotion to this summary. I agree with you that the colors are very important in the film, as recently I have been studying the different effect that elements of Mise-En-Scene such as color have on the narrative of the film. I think this film is important for people to see, I feel that the majority of people don’t have idea of how serious the crime of human trafficking is, and this film can help bring awareness to it.
   Stefan Jurado
7. Andrea Manitto 10.15.20 / 12pm

   Congratulations on your review Matheus; I really appreciate it. The plot you told seems really interesting and in particular, tells a story based on a delicate argument such as human trafficking. It would seem that several factors like flashbacks, sensory elements such as colors, hand-held camera movements, and frame choice have a distinct influence on this film, making it really interesting. In conclusion, it seems like a film that conveys an important emotional charge due to the plot and its sensitive meanings. Indeed I will watch this film as soon as I have the opportunity.

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