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
Where To Invade Next?
Where to Invade Next? (2015, USA, d. Michael Moore, 119 Minutes) by Robert Joseph Butler The greatness with Michael Moore is that each of his recent films like Sicko, Capitalism: A Love Story, and now [...]
Zoolander 2
Zoolander 2 (2016, USA, d. Ben Stiller, 102 Minutes) by Robert Joseph Butler Ben Stiller's Zoolander 2 is a complete waste of time and human effort. At times it feels like a bizarre [...]
The Lobster
The Lobster (2016, Ireland/Greece/USA, d. Yorgos Lanthimos, 118 Minutes) by Jesse Stringer In a dystopian future, single people are arrested and held by authorities at a luxury hotel. There, they must find a [...]
Hail, Caesar!
Hail, Caesar! (2016, USA, d. Joel & Ethan Coen, 106 Minutes) by Robert Joseph Butler Hail, Caesar!, the latest comedic satire from Joel and Ethan Coen, is very disappointing. Nowhere near as personal [...]
Kung Fu Panda 3
Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016, USA, d. Jennifer Yuh Nelson & Alessandro Carloni, 95 minutes) By Robert Joseph Butler Now a huge DreamWorks animation franchise and trilogy, Kung Fu Panda 3 is so [...]
Jane Got a Gun
Jane Got a Gun (2016, USA, d. Gavin O’Connor, 98 Minutes) By Jesse Stringer Since 2011, Jane Got a Gun has undergone more production problems than a film would ever hope to. Originally, [...]
Thoughts on the Homespun Wisdom of L. Frank Baum, the Oz books, and The Wizard of Oz (1939)
by Barry Germansky L. Frank Baum may lack the linguistic brilliance of Lewis Carroll, but he is certainly a formidable wordsmith. What is more, he possesses two qualities that are almost as rare (if not [...]
Son of Saul
Son of Saul (2015, Hungary, d. László Nemes, 107 Minutes) by Jesse Stringer The film opens out of focus. From the depth comes a figure walking toward the camera. All of a [...]
The Revenant
The Revenant (2015, USA, d. Alejandro G. Innaritu, 156 Minutes) by Robert Joseph Butler Brutal in depiction, visceral in experience, and visually arresting to endure, The Revenant is a visionary and astonishing [...]
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) is endlessly rewarding. The rubber Gill-man suit at the film's core has the abstracting power of an African mask, and director Jack Arnold instinctively recognizes this epistemological state of affairs, flaunting the [...]
The Top 10 Films of 2015
by Robert Joseph Butler An aging actress realizes her career is quickly passing by. Two great animated films in one year, as well as two great wintry westerns in one year. A brilliant study of [...]
The Shining
The Shining (1980) is the fullest representation of Stanley Kubrick’s self-conscious alienating lens. The film is more about Kubrick, the polymorphous satirist, than Stephen King, the modern master of the colloquial horror tale. This version of the story is [...]