Room (I) (2005) User Reviews (20)

No, It Isn't A Masterful Meditation On... Anything

[VictorDePasqual · 3/10 · 7 April 2006]

**Possible Spoilers** I saw this in Austin two days ago, and I honestly have to say it was a waste of time. I'm not one to only like one genre, or not be able to open my mind to abstract vision, but this film has no answers to any questions brought up during the course of the razor thin narrative. The director assured us the film should be interpreted by the viewer, but how can one do this if there is little or nothing to interpret? Cyndi Williams certainly delivers a powerful performance, but it's hard to say for what. The story, very, very thin story, is about Williams' middle-aged housewife who suffers visions with her migraines and one day crashes her car which pushes her to fly out to NYC for no reason except to find the non-descript warehouse/loft room she sees in her migraine episodes.

The camera work is amateur and not worth noting. The music is well done, as is the sound design, bu to what purpose is still a mystery to me. I usually feel when a filmmaker does not give ANY concrete answers or motivations for character development or actions it is a cop out. This is no different. You walk away not feeling one bit of satisfaction for anything. You just keep wondering why you just wasted 100 minutes watching NOTHING happen and nothing resolve itself. Watch out.

Not much beyond the movie poster

[jrbdobbs69 · 2/10 · 18 April 2006]

If you like films with beginnings, middles, and ends, this is not for you. There is much to like about parts of this film. The acting is good, the cinematography is good, the music and sound design is excellent, and the editing is very good. Still, I would have preferred going to any trailer park in Texas and drinking beer with the residents. The film is so much like real life that it makes me long for real life instead of watching an imitation. I don't need to pay to see banality on screen when I can walk out the door and see it for free, and in a more interesting, interactive way. This would have made 2 excellent experimental films of about 8 minutes each. This is not a "message film," but rather a very long mood piece, and unfortunately, all of that was conveyed by the movie poster. "Room" reminds me of Richard Linklater's first feature film, "It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books." I disliked that film for many of the same reasons, and now Linklater is one of my favorite directors. I hope the same will happen with this filmmaker.

What could I spoil?

[KM_391 · 1/10 · 12 February 2006]

Well, at least this movie was short - only about an hour and ten minutes. Yet I still want to kick myself for wasting that much of my life on this movie. I'm not one to bash filmmakers - I can appreciate the effort in almost anything. But when you make me sit and wait and wait and wait for some kind of reason for the existence of the film, let alone any kind of resolution of the story, and you leave me with nothing, then I'm just plain annoyed. I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I tell you there's almost no story at all here. If you read the synopsis provided by the filmmakers, you already know the whole story, what little there is. Films like this are what give indie film a bad name. Though Cindi Williams gives a credible performance as the lost-soul heroine of the movie, there is no other redeeming quality I can find here. I felt this movie was a complete waste of time.

This film is awful

[jrowe100 · 1/10 · 2 June 2007]

Ouch. Wow. Terrible. Simple film that is so dull and boring with no rhyme or reason. The first half is almost interesting as she "loses it"... but the second half she wanders around NY in a dazed fog, leaving the viewers in a dark cloud of disappointment. The ending was nothing at all... leaving us so empty. The rental box sounded very compelling, but the film is a waste of time. Hey, the lead actress did a really good job of playing the part of the overburdened, confused and dazed housewife, but the role was not enough to carry this film.

Sorry, don't rent this one. All they had to do was give us a solid second half and a firm conclusion and I would have given it a 5.

this is thinking person's cinema

[morrison_hillingdon · 29 October 2006]

why do people need to be spoonfed when it comes to cinema.... There is fastfood cinema.....pay your money, take your choice, laugh/cry whatever it says on the tin, and leave.... and there are films that heighten the senses you Don't use every day....

Newsflash; leaving the story unresolved is neither lazy or a cop out....that's when you need to work, to evaluate and think of what it means...this is thinking person's cinema...a gourmet meal and really think ....I mean really, really think before you feel 'cheated' or 'conned' of the 'perfect resolution'...see such films as the heightened, responsible pieces they actually are to the art....

What the...huh??!

[cherise-5 · 2/10 · 17 February 2007]

Okay, this is an hour and ten minutes of my life I will never get back... The actress did a great job playing the "tormented" Julia, the music was nice and blah, blah, blah, but there was really nothing else to this movie. NOTHING. No point, no climax, no real ending, nothing. You have a middle-aged wife and mother who (in no particular order here) gets migraines, passes out, wrecks her car, yells at her daughter, has a sudden bout of kleptomania (okay, I got that part), leaves her family, jets over to New York (why NY?), has a one-night stand (what was THAT about??), runs into Suzy/Whatsherface (and the point of that was...?), wanders into a rave, ends up in some kind of support group (all kinds of weirdness there...) and otherwise, just spends the rest of the movie wandering around looking lost. This movie seemed a series of unfortunate events, rather than a story. If you want to get all philosophical, I guess it was about soul-searching (or insanity...who knows?) and the writer wanted you to conclude it in your mind however you like. I appreciate a good movie that makes you think, but this was NOT one of those movies. The only thing it left me thinking about is what else I could have gotten with the money I spent to rent it. In reality, I'd never condone anyone taking his life in his hands, but this movie was SOOO slow and pointless that, by the time Julia was sitting on the rooftop staring down at the top of the van, I was wishing she'd just jump. I sincerely hope that the open ending wasn't in anticipation of a sequel...

HELP! Let me out of the Room!

[stealthysock · 1/10 · 18 January 2008]

Do not be fooled by the appealing look of the DVD box. Beware of what is inside. Before you know it, you will have lost pieces of your soul to the producers and directors of this movie. R is for ridiculous. O is for "Oh god! What a waste of time." O is for zerO motivation. M is for movies that suck! We crown this one queen. Waste your time. Try to figure out this plot, and you might suffer a brain aneurysm. The best part of this movie was reading the comments on this site and knowing we are not alone in our absolute DISGUST for this brainless, plot less, mind sucking movie. There are not enough words in the English vocabulary to express the distaste I feel for this film.

Haunting.

[ghostsarescared · 7/10 · 10 April 2011]

I actually liked this film. No it isn't perfect-but it gave me a feeling that not many others have. I'd compare the feeling to the one I got from Clean, Shaven and Inland Empire. Sort of a nightmarish claustrophobia, but the sort you get from being stuck inside your own body. I think the director deserves credit for a haunting, unique film. I really related to the main character in her 'lostness'...this movie really gets that the most disturbing things are not subversive or alien to us- they are real situations, every day things. No, there's not a real plot or a satisfying-loose ends-tying finale, but if there were I'd feel cheated because life isn't like that. I think this film has been reviewed by too many people who have never experienced real fear.

Infuriating movie

[Veleka · 1/10 · 11 March 2007]

Room is the most infuriating and boring movie I have seen in years. I wanted to destroy the DVD when the end credits came on. Why? As others have already stated so well, there was no ending, no conclusion, no answers or resolution of any kind to what that room was or what it meant to her.

I did like seeing a very fat actress in a role instead of a pretty person. I also liked seeing her fat lover... the guy she picked up in the bar. I assumed she had sex with him because of the night her husband refused her because he had work to do. But who knows? Like everything else in this film, it was interesting to watch, but meaningless.

When I began to realize I had wasted my money was in that spiraling weirdness at the end. It gave me a headache, and I had to look away. When it just went on and on and on, I had a hunch that this was the director's substitute for a decent ending.

All in all, watching this film was like having pretty-good sexual foreplay and then having your lover just leave you. I will never watch anything by that director again. He copped out, he cheated us, and I hope he turns to something like gardening where what he does won't infuriate millions of viewers like Room did.

This is excellent independent art- not mainstream garbage.

[cast_blank-92-780792 · 10/10 · 27 June 2011]

"Room" is one of my favorite films. I really love the the sounds and the imagery, as well as he story itself. It's very real to me, and stimulates great emotion. I have recommended it several times to people. I can only explain my love for this piece in this way: I feel that it is both a literal and abstract expression of a very real depth that many of us fail to come to terms with- something that remains unsupportable in our psyches. This film goes even further beyond touching down on that sadness and emptiness, as well as the desperation of finding some relief in the great pursuit of those answers that are nearly impossible to find. Although the concept may not be easy to explain, or for some to open themselves to comprehend, it is deeply felt and shoots right through the soul. Amazing experience that gets better each time I watch it. You're real artists. I appreciate what you do. I will look forward to making it a point to check out future projects submitted.

Room with a View

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 10 October 2012]

***SPOILERS*** Suffering from severe migraine headaches and feeling that the world is closing in on her middle-age Huston Texas housewife Julia Baker, Cyndi Williams,feels she needs a change in life and finally does it. Leaves her troubled and deeply in debt life behind together with her husband and two children. Leaving on a trip of what she hopes to be discovery and back to sanity Julia feels that it would lead her to better days ahead and turn her miserable life around. With her embezzling the weekly take at the bingo parlor that she worked at Julia then takes the first plane out to New York City in order to get away from it all: The "Big Apple" New York City

Alone and without a place to stay in the big city,rents in NYC were a lot higher then Cyndi expected, during the Christmas holiday season Cyndi roams the streets of New York until she runs into a friend of her from back in Huston, what a small world, Suzy who now calls herself Alex, Gretchen Krich. Alex gives her the name of a real-estate agent friend of her Athina, Suzanne Savoy, who can get her an apartment at a cut rate price. As things turned even cut-rate prices weren't all that affordable for Julia here in NYC who's embezzled cash was quickly running out on her. Before that she meets in a bar in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn Big Tex, Shanon Weaver, who in him after taken a couple dozen belts of Jack Daniels on the rocks and being almost blind drunk is not turned off by the middle aged and somewhat overweight Julia. Tex after making some friendly conversation with her takes Julia to his pad at the Saint George Hotel in Brooklyn Heights to be bedded down,by him, for the night. The next day with the booze wearing off him Tex realized his mistake as both he and Julia quietly parted ways.

***SPOILERS*** Still homeless at the end of the movie, which ends abruptly, we see Julia aimlessly roaming the streets of New York looking for this mythical room that's she's been hallucinating about all during the movie. As she then ends up in this sleazy go-go joint alone lost and confused and hoping that she'll finally find herself before the men with the white suites do.

P.S Loneliness, which she tried to escape from, followed Julia all the way to NYC. And it was there in the big cold heartless and almost friendless, with the exception of Alex, city that the truth finally hit her.

*** HERE's the SPOILER!!! ***

[cskarulis · 1/10 · 23 January 2008]

nothing happens!

Ummm. I am so glad that I didn't actually spend money to see this movie. I am really surprised that I actually watched the whole thing. The first half of the movie was pretty good. The plot develops and characters start to unfold, but just when you become involved, the movie veers abruptly... into a ditch... and stays there... and nothing happens.

And does anyone know what the psychic scene was all about? If you have any insight, please let me know.

I just finished watching the movie, and immediately logged on here to see what other people thought.

I give it three letters: WTF

The Question is WHY!?

[hyperbee11 · 27 January 2005]

Experimental Movie?? Umm, I guess, If the experiment portion of it was to confuse and frustrate the viewer.

This movie has absolutely no plot, no conflict, no story, no point, no climax, and of course, no resolution.

As I sat in the theater, tears of pain inflicted by this film strolled down my face. It's a pain I don't dare wish upon the worst of enemies.

I don't think I have EVER wished that the "hero" would just kill herself. I kept hoping she would have a stroke or get stabbed by the absurd fortune teller and/or silly cowboy, or simply just jump out of the stupid window in her vision. ANYTHING would have been interesting. Yet I had no such luck.

That's not including the the two minutes of irrelevant and aimless kaleidoscope (or magnified amoeba) action on the screen towards the end.

Watch it if you're looking for a reason to cry or commit suicide.

No Definitive Ending

[Andreanna · 1/10 · 15 October 2007]

I was very disappointed by this movie and all I could think of was that I wanted the time and money back that I wasted. I can't believe that the Austin Film Society granted Kyle Henry the money to make this "film" that never seemed to go anywhere. Kyle Henry and Cyndi Williams were in attendance and they didn't even seem to know what the movie was about during the q & a session. Kyle stated that Americans are often spoon fed the answers in a film that are merely crap. Well I would have like to have been spoon fed some of that crap because at least those movies have a direction, a definitive ending, and leave the audience with something to think about other than that's an hour of my life I'll never get back.

room-for improvement

[masterjk2 · 2/10 · 28 June 2007]

The only reason I gave this movie a 2 was for the acting... it was really quite good. Otherwise, I would have given it a -10. Utter rubbish. Yes, the camera work was good and as mentioned the acting was just fine. But a plot that made sense would have been nice. There were a few clever twists and turns and then... nothing. We're left, at the end, with a swirling montage representing nothing... if they are waiting for money to make the sequel, "Room for hire", I'll chip in a dollar. Maybe then it would end. Frankly, I hate pretentious work that purports to be "meaningful." The review said it was "existential." I think Sartre or Camus would be laughing silly to the banality of the idea of this 'existentialism." It looked more like she needed a fine tuning knob on her vision receptor. I truly hated this movie for making me wait 75 minutes to find out they had no idea how to end it. And the poor actors, still waiting for an ending, so they could have the denouement. A lot of hot air signifying absolutely nothing. I hope he never makes another.

It didn't feel like I wasted my time

[hades-lethe · 7/10 · 20 November 2005]

I have included unwanted information about the ending, it's not direct, therefore I don't really know if it is a spoiler or no OK, first of all, I can understand that this movie has such a low rating. But I'm afraid I can't agree with it. The movie is somewhat very different from what people are used to see. I saw this movie at LIFFe which is a film festival held at the city where I live. I wanted to see this movie because it is supposed to be experimental.

The film itself has a very minimal approach, which I would blame on the budget. But it's not my job to go into technical specs. The movie takes on a completely different approach, the movie does not answer questions that are raised, this is why it is unique. Some people find it horrible to watch because the movie is somewhat more visual and there is very little dialog. The movie leaves everything to your imagination and along the way it gives some small hints which may steer you. I really loved the ambient that the movie creates, the sound scape was great. If you wish to see a movie that obeys no logic and obeys no formula for making a movie, I think this is what you should go and see. It is an experiment more than is a film.

Rating 7/10

Excellent camera work, editing and acting with a great script

[petkovski · 9/10 · 22 November 2005]

I would say that this film falls into the genre of psychological drama. I didn't know what to expect when I saw it on LIFFE festival in Ljubljana. The story unfolds with a classical USA low class family trying to get whatever is possible to survive. The husband is a good person, the woman is working hard and looks like a good person, daughter is a teenager like every else. But something break up in the wife's had and she is going on a mission. that's where weird things happen, or so we think of them. Powerful editing and psychedelic music with a great performance by the actress and great camera work will drown you inside this movie. Please see the movie, maybe you can find yourself and your place in the world. At least it made me think afterword's.

I give it a 9/10, because of some technical flaws, otherwise is brilliant!

A great Kyle Henry film ***SPOILERS (and insights) AHEAD***

[ckollerer · 10/10 · 28 February 2008]

This is not a Hollywood mega-film: no major stars, no supermodels, no fun. It is a serious independent film with real-to-life actors. It presents an offbeat story which thrusts us viewers into the tortured, schizoid mind of Julia Baker. It is a helter-skelter ride from an overstressed working mother in Texas to the shattered person she becomes, alone in her personal, confused hell in New York.

She is compelled to find the large, spacious "room" she dreams of. She abandons her family to follow cryptic, hallucinated clues to find this "room". It ends with a blurred, double-visioned hallucination, which takes her (and us) looking down at something, who knows what, very close up. The blurred vision continues to look down from a perspective spinning upward into space. That alone is worth the price of the film rental. It is very unsettling to be sent on this schizophrenic journey way out of reality. But it is a masterful inside, experiential view of schizophrenia, apart from actually being schizophrenic. It is totally absorbing. Check your reality at the theater door.

If, however, you have a Hollywood movie mindset and no appreciation of where writer-director, Kyle Henry brilliantly wants to take you, you're apt to think this movie is a totally plot less, bizarre, incomprehensible, incoherent trip to nowhere. And a total waste of time. And you should pass on this one.

As a refresher, I include here a quote from a helpguide.com article on "What Is Schizophrenia":

"Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affects the way a person acts, thinks, and sees the world. People with schizophrenia have an altered perception of reality, often a significant loss of contact with reality. They may see or hear things that don't exist, speak in strange or confusing ways, believe that others are trying to harm them, or feel like they're being constantly watched. With such a blurred line between the real and the imaginary, schizophrenia makes it difficult—even frightening—to negotiate the activities of daily life. In response, people with schizophrenia may withdraw from the outside world or act out in confusion and fear."

Expectations...

[jadechimera-1 · 13 November 2006]

I think it should be said that the quality of this film depends on what you're hoping to get out of it.

On one hand, there is a very cerebral character to this movie; there is a tension in figuring out what is actually happening to the character even through the end. The script and cinematography work well towards this end, and the movie doesn't seem to force any particular perspective on the viewer.

There is something to be said, however, for pronounced direction in a story. To say that this movie is slow, confusing, unsatisfying, or just plain boring would not be to make an unfounded assertion.

It all rests on what you expect Room to be...

Brilliant

[spirovich · 10/10 · 2 December 2005]

This is a brilliant film.

Kyle Henry is an extremely talented young director.

Beautifully shot with a complex storyline, unexpected twists and turns.

Unconventional style take the viewer on a wild ride.

A totally new take on the classic thriller, done with artistry and whimsy.

Acting is transcendent, energetic, outside the box.

Never a dull or predictable moment.

A MUST SEE! DO NOT MISS! HALLELUJAH! PRAISE THE CINEMA LORD for giving us Kyle Henry.