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

Road to the Oscars: Bohemian Rhapsody

Road to the Oscars: Bohemian Rhapsody

By Robert Joseph Butler|2019-11-29T18:59:59+00:0001/19/2019|2-1/2 Stars, 2018, Film Review, Oscars, Uncategorized|

Crafting a biopic of music icon Freddie Mercury and the rock band Queen, the latest Oscar hopeful contender movie "Bohemian Rhapsody" offers your typical biopic cliches and trappings. The film opens up live, only to [...]

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Glass

Glass

By Noah Damron|2019-11-29T18:59:59+00:0001/18/2019|2 Stars, 2019, Film Review|

The recent years have been quite kind for filmmaker, M. Night Shyamalan. After resurrecting his career with the likes of “The Visit” and the surprise “Unbreakable”-connected, “Split”, it would seem that Shyamalan has completely reinvented [...]

Countdown to the Oscars: Green Book

Countdown to the Oscars: Green Book

By Robert Joseph Butler|2019-11-29T18:59:59+00:0001/12/2019|2018, 3-Stars, Film Review, Oscars|

During the era of deeply polarizing political times with charges of racism running rampant against the current President and his administration, one could say so many films released in 2018 dealt with issues of racism. [...]

590

Replicas

Replicas

By Noah Damron|2019-11-29T19:00:00+00:0001/12/2019|1-Star, 2019, Film Review|

In an era filled to the brim with smart, sophisticated Science Fiction (Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, Under the Skin), it’s only fitting the month of January would bring us the bastard cousin of such acclaimed [...]

Shoplifters

Shoplifters

By Robert Joseph Butler|2019-11-29T19:00:00+00:0001/08/2019|2018, 4-Stars, Film Review|

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Renowned Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda continues his spirit of Yasujiro Ozu that he has done so often with his impressive filmography that includes "Like Father, Like Son", "Nobody Knows", and "Still Walking" have all [...]

The Best Films of 2018 – Noah Damron

The Best Films of 2018 – Noah Damron

By DeFacto|2019-11-29T19:00:00+00:0001/08/2019|2018, Film Review, Top Ten|

1 - Hereditary (d. Ari Aster) As a viewer, I long to have my imagination set on fire. Not only is that when I get the most creativity, but it’s when I get the [...]

The Best Films of 2018 – Robert Butler

The Best Films of 2018 – Robert Butler

By DeFacto|2022-06-04T05:24:08+00:0001/07/2019|2018, Film Review, Top Ten|

1. Roma (d. Alfonso Cuaron) Hands down, the finest piece of cinema of 2018. A fragmented period piece of a specific place and time, the story of a year [...]

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Cold War

Cold War

By Robert Joseph Butler|2020-01-09T20:34:49+00:0001/05/2019|2018, 3-Stars, Film Review|

Acclaimed Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski follow up to his exceptional, Oscar-winning "Ida" is a step backwards from its predecessor, but it still offers a lot of engaging and impressive moments that makes it a radiant [...]

103

Vice

Vice

By Robert Joseph Butler|2019-11-29T19:00:04+00:0012/27/2018|2018, 3-Stars, Film Review|

⭐️⭐️⭐️ While messy and at times choppy with overstuffed stylistic devices that at times will make you cringe while other ones certainly impress, Adam McKay's "Vice" is a step up from "The Big Short". It's [...]

Welcome to Marwen

Welcome to Marwen

By Robert Joseph Butler|2021-10-17T14:37:33+00:0012/26/2018|2018, 3-Stars, Film Review|

by Ben Rothrock There are moments in life that are hard to look past. Some people suffer through events so traumatic that the mere memory of it can haunt them and make it difficult for [...]

Mortal Engines

Mortal Engines

By Robert Joseph Butler|2019-11-29T19:00:04+00:0012/22/2018|2-1/2 Stars, 2018, Film Review|

⭐️⭐️1/2 WARNING: Possible Spoilers Ahead! Fantasy has always been one of the most popular genres for storytellers to work in, and audiences to experience. The advantage to fantasy is that the world in which the [...]

Aquaman

Aquaman

By Noah Damron|2019-11-29T19:00:04+00:0012/21/2018|2018, 3-1/2 Stars, Film Review|

With the DCEU currently undergoing a massive change in their approach to their greater Cinematic universe after the critical and financial disaster that was Justice League, one film that was always seen as a giant [...]

Anna and the Apocalypse

Anna and the Apocalypse

By Noah Damron|2019-11-29T19:00:04+00:0012/20/2018|2018, 4-Stars, Film Review|

Do you like High School Musical or La La Land, but wish they had more… zombies? If you answered yes, then boy do I have the perfect movie for you. Anna and the Apocalypse is [...]

Vox Lux

Vox Lux

By Robert Joseph Butler|2020-01-09T20:30:58+00:0012/20/2018|2018, 4-Stars, Film Review|

By exploring the cross between celebrity, school shootings, terrorism and pop music, "Vox Lux" is perhaps one of the most bold, often formally daring films of the year that certainly bites off more that it [...]

The Mule

The Mule

By DeFacto|2019-11-29T19:00:05+00:0012/19/2018|2018, 3-Stars, Film Review|

Reviewed by Michael Powell Family. It is the focus of the starring roles of Clint Eastwood in his post-Mystic River career resurgence. Whether he is directing himself (Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino) or being directed [...]

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

By Robert Joseph Butler|2021-10-17T14:25:28+00:0012/16/2018|4-Stars, Film Review|

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ by Ben Rothrock With the rise of live action superhero movies, we often forget the true nature of characters’ comic book origins. We associate our favorite heroes with a more serious environment thanks to [...]

The Favourite

The Favourite

By Robert Joseph Butler|2020-01-09T20:37:39+00:0012/15/2018|2018, 3-Stars, Film Review|

Acclaimed director Yorgos Lanthimos blends a mix of delirious humor with his usual approach of bleakness and despair in this unique period piece that is filed with skillful direction, astonishing visuals, along with effective and [...]

Roma

Roma

By Noah Damron|2019-11-29T19:00:05+00:0012/13/2018|2018, 4-Stars, Film Review|

Depicting a year in the life of a high-class family in 1970’s Mexico told from the perspective of their housemaid, Roma plays like a love letter to the women who raise us. Although motherhood isn’t [...]

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Burning

Burning

By Robert Joseph Butler|2020-01-09T20:32:37+00:0012/10/2018|2018, 4-Stars, Film Review|

The South Korean thriller "Burning" written and directed by Lee Chang-dong is a masterfully crafted suspense drawer that holds sweltering tension as it unfolds with beguiling mystery. In the era of the Me Too movement, [...]

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle

By Robert Joseph Butler|2019-11-29T19:00:06+00:0012/09/2018|2018, 3-1/2 Stars, Film Review|

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 The Jungle Book has been a staple in children’s literature for many decades. Even though the book is comprised of many stories with different characters, the three stories about the young boy Mowgli are [...]