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
The Curse of La Llorona
For anyone who may be getting tired of the interconnected nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there is one franchise that doesn’t waist its time assuming you’re all caught up with the larger story. That [...]
Hellboy (2019)
After the attempt at making a third feature in Guillermo Del Toro’s Hellboy franchise fell through, the studio decided to scrap everything and start over. This time, with a brand new cast, edgier rating and [...]
Missing Link
Missing Link, the latest film to featuring the big-footed creature that has eluded our sight, is the latest from the animation studio Laika. Coming off their hugely successful, Oscar nominated film Kubo and the Two [...]
Unicorn Store
Brie Larson is certainly taking some ambitious steps in her professional career. At the age of 28, she’s already become a professional actress, winning an Oscar and starring in the billion dollar Captain Marvel; as [...]
Pet Sematary
Death is a natural part of life, but it is also one of the most controversial subjects of our society. Everyone processes the concept in a different way. Some are able to accept it and [...]
Monsterpalooza 2019: Douglas Schulze’s Mimesis: Nosferatu
In 1992, a decade before Michigan took a great interest in film with tax credits and film incentives, and the growing accessibility of digital film technology that makes it even more disposable than ever to [...]
The Beach Bum
Iconic independent filmmaker Harmony Korine has now spent three decades writing and directing feature films that explore the decadence of youth culture and even mankind as a whole . He has made many films exploring [...]
Gloria Bell
Chilean writer-director Sebastián Lelio's US remake of his 2013 Chilian romantic dramedy "Gloria" is surprisingly a radiant joy that succeeds and actually exceeds the original. Little often do Hollywood remakes of foreign films ever work, [...]
The Russian Five
One of the greatest underdog stories in all of sports history is that of the Red Wings, specifically their decades long journey to the Stanley Cup in 1997. Steering the way to their win is [...]
Birds of Passage
Part gritty crime drama with the execution of a origin story that plays out like a ethnographic documentary, Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra's follow-up to the Oscar nominated "Embrace of the Serpent" new film titled "Birds [...]
Wonder Park
Imagination is something that every kid has. There is no question about that. When you’re young, you’re view of the world isn’t as well-rounded as when you’re an adult. As a result, you believe that [...]
Everybody Knows
Dramatically involving and multilayered in theme and tone, "Everybody Knows" is every bit as deeply compelling and engaging as Iranian auteur Asghar Faradhi's previous films that include the two Oscar winners "A Separation" and a [...]
Triple Frontier
When a group of former Special Ops reunite to take down a South American drug lord and steal his mansion full of money, they get more than they bargained for when things go awry and [...]