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
Orwell: 2+2=5
George Orwell is one of the most complex figures of the modern world. Philosopher and author, his influence is such that his name has become an invocation of a certain type of occurrence. Born Eric [...]
The Housemaid
Due to its content and source material, Paul Feig's domestic psychological thriller film The Housemaid asks a lot from the viewer in terms of plausibility, perception, and plot turns in its narrative thread. However, it's [...]
Avatar: Fire and Ash
James Cameron has been of cinema’s greatest adventurers. Allowing audiences to escape into the realm of new worlds and immersive stories, Cameron has been a filmmaking pioneer for a majority of his eclectic career. Having [...]
The Voice of Hind Rijab
The Voice of Hind Rajab is one of those films that grabs you from the first frame and demands you pay attention to it. This it does not through visceral action, but rather via the communication [...]
Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025)
Silent Night, Deadly Night was a controversial 1984 slasher film that was met with mixed responses. Opening the same day as Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street, the film was the bigger success on [...]
Zootopia 2
Disney animation's Zootopia was a mega-hit back in 2016 that grossed over $1 billion and has become one of the studio's crowning achievements from the past decade. Its unique premise and delightful characters made it [...]
The Baltimorons
The Baltimorons is a wry and sometimes bittersweet holiday confection. Concerning a man who goes to a Christmas eve gathering with his fiancé, but, after injuring his mouth, must seek dental care, the film is [...]
Marty Supreme
We have seen quite a few uncompromising sports films this year; just a few months ago we had Benny Safdie's solo directorial offering with The Smashing Machine, which was a deeply compelling sports drama about [...]
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
The second movie in the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise is kind of a win. This isn’t in the traditional sense; what makes cinema great need not necessarily be provided in a video game adaptation. And indeed, [...]
Rebuilding
Some films have a lot of plot and others a dearth. Many of the finest films combine heavy character growth with thick plots. Some, though, have a simple story, quietly told, filled with characters that [...]
Left-Handed Girl
Left-Handed Girl is the first solo feature from director and co-writer Shih-Chin Tsou, who has mostly been a producer. This time, she is joined by Sean Baker, whom she has produced several films for, and [...]
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
With the Knives Out films, writer and director Rian Johnson has created a nice franchise for himself and Daniel Craig, who stars as detective Benoit Blanc. The first film was a straight up cozy mystery, while the [...]
The Secret Agent
Most spy movies are overwhelmed with severe plotting and are multi-layered with an objective amount of espionage that often contains double-crosses, betrayal, and twists and turns. Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho, who helmed the instant [...]
Come See Me in the Good Light
Some films tell a simple story, and others a very complex one. Some are done with lots of feeling but very little style. Others, all style and no substance. Rarely do documentaries manage to succeed [...]
The Alabama Solution
The Alabama Solution is a vital work of investigation and advocation. Concerned with the prison system in the United States, though centered on the Alabama Department of Corrections-and specifically, on a set of inmates in that [...]
The Perfect Neighbor
Documentary is a tricky thing to do, and it is easy to completely destroy a topic and argument by offering too much or too little. Sometimes, this involves heavy editorializing when simply letting the facts [...]
Ballad of a Small Player
Edward Berger is a talented director, as demonstrated by his Academy Award-winning All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave. Colin Farrell is one of our finest actors, able to pull off comedy and drama with equal aplomb. Ballad [...]