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
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, [...]
Official Competition
An insider satire that will likely amuse audiences that are highly interested in acting and the filmmaking process that generates some amusing laughs, Official Competition is a clever parody of the absurdity and pretentiousness of [...]
Jurassic World: Dominion
Oh, how so much can change in 30 years. Looking back at Steven Spielberg's original classic, Jurassic Park, it's amazing just how much wonder came from seeing dinosaurs on the big screen with it's then [...]
Fire Island
Over the years, LGBTQ+ representation has widened and become more mainstream in the world of cinema, which is remarkable. Films that have garnered the bulk of popularity include Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, [...]
Benediction
Terrence Davies' skillful direction and the engaging storytelling of Siegfried Sassoon's life are just some of the highlights in this luminous biographical drama. From an original screenplay by Davies based on the events of Sasson's [...]
Crimes of the Future
A dystopian planet where the human population is nearly extinct and human autonomy is transforming, or rather mutating, is just the starting point for David Cronenberg's provocative and effectively grotesque body-horror sci-fi thriller. More in [...]
Hit the Road
The first feature from Panah Panahi holds some of the same cinematic traits and sensibilities as his father, Jafar Panahi. Like his father, the film also delivers some subtle modern insights into the current state [...]
The Bob’s Burgers Movie
The jump to television to the big screen has proven highly successful for such animated shows as South Park and The Simpsons, which makes all the sense in the world that Bob's Burgers, the Fox [...]
Montana Story
In case you were wondering, Montana Story is in fact an American independent drama that's setting is, well, in Montana. It's smaller scale than the series Yellowstone, with just a few characters that take part [...]