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
Magazine Dreams
Magazine Dreams is the newest film from writer/director Elijah Bynum, last seen as the co-writer of the Lee Daniels dud, The Deliverance. Here, opting for a cast of much lesser-known actors, and headlined by a [...]
The Alto Knights
One of the most disappointing experiences one can have is to see a mob thriller starring not one, but two Robert De Niros (in dual roles) that's not particularly engaging or engrossing. Even worse is [...]
7th Annual DeFacto Film Awards
Welcome to the 7th annual DeFacto Film Awards! In honor of the Oscars airing tonight, please enjoy our personal picks, as voted on by our writers. This year our selections have been chosen by just [...]
The Monkey
Last year's thriller Longlegs, from writer/director Osgood Perkins, was among the biggest successes of last year, garnering strong critical and commercial acclaim, grossing over $125 million on a budget of just $10 million. The ominous [...]
Parthenope
Paolo Sorrentino has been one of the masters of cinema for two decades, but sadly, his latest film, Parthenope, does little to burnish his reputation. Known for films full of visual splendor, fascinating characters and deep, [...]
Captain America: Brave New World
As the first MCU film since last year's Deadpool & Wolverine, the newest entry in the ongoing saga comes after numerous delays, from both strikes, to creative overhauls involving reshoots, re-edits and endless production troubles. [...]
Heart Eyes
Coming just a week after the unique sci-fi thriller Companion is another original genre film opening early in the year that is much better than you might anticipate. A Valentine’s themed slasher, the latest from [...]
Top 10 Films of 2024 – Editors’ Choice
Despite many who have claimed as such, 2024 was a stellar year for cinema. Coming off contentious strike delays that saw a slow start to the year, 2024 gave audiences a variety of terrific films. [...]
Flight Risk
Much can be said, and has been said, about the problematic nature of Mel Gibson. Setting aside his previous antics and despicable behavior, the man does know how to make a movie. His latest film [...]
Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara
Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara, is an historical drama based on the 1858 case of a Bolognese Jewish family whose six-year old son, Edgardo, was forcibly removed from their home because of the dictate [...]
A Traveler’s Needs
A Traveler’s Needs, the latest work from South Korean film maker Hong Sang-soo, stars Isabelle Huppert as a woman who, finding herself in South Korea, has come up with a novel way of making ends [...]
September 5
September 5 is a dramatization of the events surrounding ABC Sports coverage of the Israeli hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Games. Directed by Tim Fehlbaum, the film features a fine cast headlined by Peter Sarsgaard [...]