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





Reviews published in
Brightburn
Most superhero movies are based on comic books, we’re pretty familiar with that. The characters with fully established fan bases are the films that are guaranteed to make the most money in theaters. That’s why [...]
Aladdin
As Disney continues to remake every last one of their classic animated films, they are starting to dig into the films of the last Disney Renaissance. Many of their classics from the 80s and 90s [...]
Michigan Short Film Round-Up (May 2019 Edition)
Short films just as feature films invoke emotions. Sadly there isn't much of a market for short films since there are so many of them, and people prefer to not spend their hard earned money [...]
Her Smell
Nauseating by design and visceral in experience, with a running time that is about 30 minutes over-long, "Her Smell", the sixth feature from indie film writer-director Alex Ross Perry (Queen of Earth, Listen Up Philip, Golden [...]
A Dog’s Journey
Two years ago, we received A Dog’s Purpose, a family-friendly comedy about a dog named Bailey. Voiced by the perfectly cast Josh Gad, Bailey attempts to find out what his purpose is on Earth as [...]
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu
The Pokémon franchise has been with us ever since the mid-90s, and has gone on to become a staple of people’s childhoods. Kids everyone, at some point, find themselves in possession of Pokémon cards, or [...]
Ash Is Purest White
An official selection at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where it was in competition for the Palme D'Or that went to Hirokazu Kore-eda's masterpiece, "Shoplifters" (placed 3rd in my top 10 last year), yet the [...]
UglyDolls
Thanks to the success of The Lego Movie, films based on popular toy lines are coming back into fashion. No, it’s not a new trend, but they’ve become more successful than ever, and have become [...]
The Intruder
Screen Gems, a division of Sony, has made a solid track record of churning out mid budget, campy, stalker thrillers over the past decade. 2009’s, Beyonce-starring, “Obsessed”, 2015’s “The Perfect Guy” and 2016’s “When [...]
Avengers: Endgame (Spoiler-Free)
After the devastating loss at the hands (fingers?) of Thanos (Josh Brolin) that turned half of all living creatures into dust, we find our heroes desperate and reeling from the biggest loss imaginable. Just to [...]
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 [...]
High Life
Claire Denis's English-language debut, the high-minded sci-fi film "High Life," continues her attempt at exploring and rather transcending genre films, "Trouble Every Day" was her terrain into horror, "Bastards" was a modern neo-noir, and even [...]
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 [...]
After
The “Good Girl/Bad Boy” formula has been a staple of modern romance for as long as anyone can remember. No matter how many wish to deny it, there’s something about the rebellious type [...]
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 [...]
Shazam!
After their biggest success to date with last year’s “Aquaman”, Warner Bros. and DC are taking things down to a much smaller scale with the hero, "Shazam!", formerly Captain Marvel… I know, it’s confusing. Shazam! [...]
3 Faces
It's now been nine years since Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was banned from making films in his own country, yet he has continued to rebel as all artists do, and the result of his stubbornness has [...]




















