About Defacto Film Reviews
Defacto Film Reviews is a unique site where the film critics are also filmmakers themselves. It will feature weekly reviews as well as lists and more.
Originally formed in 2002 under Defactoweb.com, our website’s chief film critic is Robert Joseph Butler. His top ten lists were featured under Movie City News. His reviews have also been published at Michigan Movie Magazine and on Michigan’s longest running film school website, MPIFilm.com. His reviews have also been featured and published in The Oakland Press as well, which is one of Michigan’s largest newspaper publications.
He later went on to become an award-winning filmmaker of several independent short films including such festival hits as The Spirit of Isabel and Within, which won the Audience Choice Award at the 2015 Cinetopia International Film Festival. His short film “The Girl on the Mat” won Best Screenplay at the 2017 Queens World Film Festival. His most recent feature length movie, “Blood Immortal,” won Best Horror Feature Film at the 24th annual Indie Gathering International Film Festival and is now available to own on DVD and is available on Digital streaming platforms.
Using grassroots support, the site is devoted to celebrating independent and art-house cinema, as well as to high-crafted films that tell engaging stories with vision, focus, and skill.
Defacto Film Reviews is a unique case where the film critics are also filmmakers themselves. We will give readers comprehensible, honest, and erudite analysis of each film.
Rating System–4 Stars
Masterpiece/Top 10 Worthy
Exceptional
Quality
Mediocre
Poor
Reviews published in
Fantasy Life
Fantasy Life, from writer and director Matthew Shear, who also stars as, in his debut film behind the camera, focuses on the story of a recently fired young legal worker, Sam and how he finds [...]
Faces of Death
Most horror fanatics from the ages of 60 to 20 have likely come across, or heard, of the notorious 1978 mondo exploitation film Faces of Death. What was once sold as a genuine snuff film [...]
Miroirs No. 3
Miroirs No. 3 is a lyrical, unusual work that contains a lot of rich emotions, done in a way where not much seems to happen yet each moment is packed with such eventfulness, it may [...]
They Will Kill You
In Kirill Sokolov’s new film, They Will Kill You, Zazie Beetz plays Asia, a young woman who escapes an abusive father with her young sister Maria, played by Myha’la. When the father catches up to them, [...]
Forbidden Fruits
Director Meredith Alloway's feature debut titled Forbidden Fruits, based on Lily Houghton's 2019 play, is a witchy horror-comedy that starts clever and features superb casting. All the actresses are terrific and perfectly cast, yet the [...]
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist
Oscar-winner Daniel Roher directs this enlightening documentary about the existential uncertainties—both hopeful and cynical—surrounding the rise of artificial intelligence with The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist . While the questions raised here [...]
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
The 2023 blockbuster adaptation of the iconic Nintendo video games The Super Mario Brothers Movie was an overwhelming hit at the box office, grossing over $1.3 billion worldwide. The film, which was a safe, but [...]
A Magnificent Life
The third animated feature from French writer/director Sylvain Chomet, A Magnificent Life doesn't quite reach the emotional impact or narrative innovation of his previous masterpieces, The Triplets of Belleville and The Illusionist. While the 2D [...]
Reminders of Him
Author Colleen Hoover seems to be the new "it" author to adapt in Hollywood. After the smash hit success of her novel adaptation It Ends With Us -- that's before all the ongoing behind-the-scenes legal [...]
Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere
Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere is another presentation from the British documentarian and journalist. This time, he tackles not Jimmy Saville or any single notorious figure, but a movement, and set of ideas, through exploration [...]
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
Reuniting directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett with writer Guy Busick, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come dives back into bloody chaos. It carries the unenviable burden of following a cult-favorite horror-comedy celebrated for its [...]
Project Hail Mary
Author Andy Weir's 2021 novel Project Hail Mary has become one of the most popular best-selling books of this decade. The author's previous novel The Martian was adapted by director Ridley Scott in 2015 to [...]
8th Annual DeFacto Film Awards
Welcome to the 8th annual De Facto Film Awards! In honor of the Oscars airing on March 15th, we ended up tabulating our personal picks, as voted on by our own writers. This year our [...]
The Bride!
The Bride! is the new film from Maggie Gyllenhaal. While the film is at times visually audacious, this is a work that could have benefited from less “lets just do it” instead of giving in [...]
