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
Dark Water (Spotlight Review)
Over twenty years ago, infamous Japanese director Hideo Nakata launched his career with the J-horror hits Ringu (1998) and it’s follow up Ringu 2 (1999). In collaboration with novelist Kôji Suzuki, the two were able [...]
Blood and Money
The title of John Barr's glum and equally taut "Blood and Money" is an unimaginative movie title, but the movie is not. While certainly a mixed bag, the film goes from feeling lethargic to engrossing [...]
Crew Call Podcast 5/8/2020
Our podcast appearances on MPI Crew Call is now on iHeart Radio. Give it a listen as podcast host Sara Mahmood along with Defacto film reviewers Noah Damron and Robert Butler talk about some of [...]
How to Build a Girl
Coky Giedroyc's "How to Build a Girl" offers an inside, honest look as being a teenager that holds some charm, but is vastly inconsistent with its tonal shifts, even when there is character arcs the [...]
Spaceship Earth
The subtext of Matt Wolf's highly essential documentary, “Spaceship Earth ,” is just as relevant as the text, in this case, a rather straightforward documentary about a group of scientists and pioneers that embarked on [...]
The Naked Prey (Spotlight Review)
“Stripped, weaponless, alone and only ten desperate seconds ahead of the killers…” When a group of elephant hunters encounters a dangerous South African tribe, Cornel Wilde finds himself fighting for his life in the [...]
The Wretched
It’s often difficult for any modern horror flick to feel fresh or become a game changer particularly in the case of this low-budget, homegrown film produced here in Michigan (reportedly shot in Omena, MI), impressively [...]
Extraction
As the closest thing to a Summer blockbuster as we're going to get for a few more months, Extraction sets its sights on filling the void left by the world closing down, as a lean, [...]
Repo Man (Spotlight Review)
The year is 1984. The government is tracking down a rogue Chevy Malibu that is leaking radiation all over Los Angeles. Anyone that dare lay their eyes on what’s inside the trunk will be [...]
The Willoughbys
Since certain events have forced us to stay at home, some of us may be spending more and more time with our parents. The global health crisis has, in some way, pushed some families closer [...]
Extra Ordinary
Despite its world premiere at the 2019 SXSW, I entered the Irish comedy "Extra Ordinary" not knowing what to anticipate. In fact, when I first saw the teaser trailer, I thought it looked like it [...]
Safe (Spotlight Review)
Years before Julianne Moore worked alongside famous directors such as the Coen Brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Steven Spielberg, she had already graced us with one of her finest performances in Todd Haynes sophomore [...]
Trolls World Tour
Though movie theaters have been forced to close, causing several hyped films to get delayed, Universal is making the most of a bad situation by release their latest films online for rental. This now includes [...]
The Swimmer (Spotlight Review)
It’s late in the morning and the wind carries a sense of nostalgia through the forest. The woodland creatures scurry away, frightened by something we cannot see. We pan over the trees which have [...]
The Wild Goose Lake
Like Hong Kong filmmakers Johhny To and John Woo, Chinese filmmaker Diao Yi'nan is one of Asian cinemas strongest talents of crime thrillers, infusing most of his films with ravishing aesthetics and quintessentially film noir [...]