Fraud (2016)
54KFraud (2016). 52m | Not Rated
“A couple (and their young child) live a life beyond their means, putting them in a desperate spot. What will they do and what is the aftermath? u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Fraudu0026quot; is one of those films that makes me uncomfortable. Not because the material in the film is controversial, but because I tend to respect the old saying about only speaking nicely or keeping your mouth shut. And, unfortunately, this just does not give me much to work with if I want to be strictly nice.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne might say it is clever, innovative, or at the very least u0026quot;experimentalu0026quot; that the film is shot on a home video recorder, and most scenes are really only a few seconds long. So the plot unravels through partial vignettes, leaving the viewer plenty of room to make their own assumptions about the characters. This might be seen as a clever device, perhaps, but itu0026#39;s a hard sell.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAny movie made with a home video recorder is hard to watch. Only on rare occasions to u0026quot;found footageu0026quot; and similar styles really work. This one works if we ignore the fact that the dad seems to be always filming always no matter how big or small an event is. And he continues to film while questionable activity is going on, making him either really stupid or unbelievably addicted to his camera.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSimply put, there is not much to see here. It has no humor, it has no scary bits. There is a modicum of suspense, maybe. If this were an actual documentary, it may have some sort of value in that regard, but it is quite obviously not a real documentary and hopefully does not pretend to be. Allegedly the director had to tell an audience that the family in the film had not committed any real crimes but what gullible audience would have believed they did? u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRight now, the film is making the festival rounds, and can be seen March 25 at the Boston Underground Film Festival (BUFF). This is not the must-see film of the festival, and it seems unlikely that a distributor will jump at the chance to buy it up. (And, frankly, with all the music clips in the background, it may not even be able to be released legally.)”
