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
Fire of Love
A true found footage documentary that could also be easily labeled as a natural disaster film or even an offbeat love story—only this is real and doesn't rely on special effects or actors pretending to [...]
The Forgiven
Sharply scripted and ripped with satire about class, privilege, and broken fidelity, John Michael McDonagh's latest film certainly channels some older classics like Michael Curtiz's Casablanca or Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much [...]
Thor: Love and Thunder
When filmmaker Taika Waititi, known for quirky, heartfelt indies such as Hunt for the Wilderpeople and What We Do in the Shadows, joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it felt like a perfect match. His Thor: [...]
Both Sides of the Blade (Fire)
A highly engaging, ultimately intimate drama about a middle-aged woman who is caught in love with two men in her life, Both Sides of the Blade (also titled Fire) is a return to a more conventional [...]
The Innocents
It’s not often you find hidden gems under the large stockpile of films today, but when you do, it's astonishingly satisfying. These days, we are in the Golden Age of superhero filmmaking, whether it be [...]
Minions: The Rise of Gru
Illumination's Despicable Me franchise has dominated the culture since the very first film, released in 2010. The story of likable supervillain with a heart of gold, Gru, and his adoptive daughters has spawned two sequels [...]
The Best Films of 2022…So Far
It's 2022 and regular moviegoing feels normalized again, only back from a long, 2-year pandemic, but so are many superlative blockbusters that are pulling in audiences, with such box-office spectacles as Top Gun: Maverick, Dr. [...]
Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe
Before Mike Judge struck gold with his biggest creative endeavor, King of The Hill, it’s predecessor, Beavis and Butt-Head was a hit on MTV. The show first aired on March 8th, 1993 and the two [...]
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
As charming as any Pixar or Hollywood family film, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is the feature film version of the 2010 successful You Tube short film of the same title. This is the [...]
Neptune Frost
Saul Willliams teams up with Rwandan playwright and actress Anisia Uzeyman for their directorial debut, titled Neptune Frost, an otherworldly but partly successful film that blends sci-fi with musical numbers. Think of Claire Denis's White [...]
Spiderhead
Now, it’s no surprise that Netflix produces its fair share of films every year, under various genres, around 100 films are released each year from Netflix alone. With such a number of projects being greenlit [...]
The Black Phone
In the year 2012, director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill, a former film critic-turned-screenwriter, unfurled to the world, Sinister, a low-budget horror film starring Ethan Hawke. The film grossed over $80 million worldwide [...]
Flux Gourmet
If the name of Peter Strickland wasn't credited to Flux Gourmet, this dark comedy with some horror tropes would probably be mistaken as an imitation of Italian Giallo, Daro Argento, or even Mario Bavo. The [...]
Mississippi Masala (Spotlight Review)
Renowned filmmaker Mira Nair didn't suffer from sophomore blues with her poignantly fleshed out, critically acclaimed romance titled Mississippi Masala. A very celebrated indie that is now finally getting the restoration that it deserves. After [...]
Ali and Ava
The expectations of family. The general wariness that can come with age. The baggage and broken feelings that come from past relationships. The societal pressures of race and class. All of these can be stumbling [...]
Cha Cha Real Smooth
Slipping and sliding its way into this year's Sundance selection, even attaining an audience award, is Cooper Raiff’s dramedy, Cha Cha Real Smooth. With its mouthful of a title, Cha Cha Real Smooth presents itself [...]
Brian and Charles
In the mid-late 90s, a wave of British comedies was released in the U.S. Films like The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, Brassed Off, The Full Monty, Little Voice, [...]