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
Palm Trees and Power Lines
Jamie Dack’s debut film, Palm Trees and Power Lines, is a stylistic feature with a great cast. The would-be coming of age drama descends into the manipulative dynamic of an older man and a young [...]
95th Annual Academy Award Predictions
Oscar Predictions 2023 Oscar night quickly approaches, taking place this Sunday, March 12. The ceremony will be hosted for the third time by the affable Jimmy Kimmel. Following a few years where the Best [...]
Lamya’s Poem
The power of the written word and the stories of our cultures are monumental building blocks to people everywhere. This is true across all races, creeds, and religions. Our stories are different, but the depth [...]
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
Just as familiar as any spy thriller, not quite as stylish as any of Soderbergh's Ocean's 11 films, and as unoriginal as any caper film, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre attempts to capture the breezy [...]
Children of the Corn (2020)
If nothing else, Kurt Wimmer's Children of the Corn reboot successfully answers the age-old question plaguing the horror genre, "Did this need to be remade?" with a resounding "No." The film is the 11th entry [...]
My Happy Ending
My Happy Ending, a slightly moving but uneven weepie about a fading actress attempting a career comeback as she discovers she has stage-four cancer and may only have a few months to live, has all [...]
Cocaine Bear
Not since Snakes On a Plane has a film title so instantly broadcasted its own brand of simplicity and self-awareness quite like this. As the title so elegantly suggests, this is the semi-true story of [...]
The Quiet Girl
Colm Bairéad's debut feature marks Ireland's first film to be nominated for Best International Film at the Academy Awards. Bairéad has some family film elements that cross over into a coming-of-age story that draws both [...]
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
It feels like ages ago that the original Ant-Man film had been all set and ready to go with filmmaker Edgar Wright ready at the helm. History would go to show that investment was nullified [...]
Return to Seoul
Cambodian French filmmaker Davy Chou (Diamond Island) manages to pull off a deeply spirited character study and existential journey with Return to Seoul, a moody and convulsively lyrical yarn about a young woman who returns [...]
2003 Retrospective: The Best Films of 2003
It's now been twenty years since what I consider the golden year of 21st century filmmaking. While there have been many great years so far this century with 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2019 [...]
You People
Kenya Barris’ new film, You People, which he co-wrote with star Jonah Hill, has great performances and comedic potential, but ultimately falters on its objectives. Oscillating between blatant social commentary and a fun romantic comedy, [...]
Magic Mike’s Last Dance
Now an unforeseen trilogy that was started by Oscar-winning auteur Steven Soderbergh with Magic Mike (2012) quickly became an unexpected sleeper hit during that summer movie season. It suddenly generated a reputation as an exuberant [...]