Watch Stephanie Daley For Free

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Excellent but underrated film

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

It is strange how people can have a gigantic Hollywood budget, the whole powerful studio support system and churn clunker after clunker. Then someone like the director of this small independent flick, with a minuscule amount of money makes a compelling piece of art. Small town in unidentified part of America, could have been anywhere, with gloomy colorless landscape. Boring, predictable lives, unfulfilled promises, church on Sundays, unspoken words hanging in the air. Makes you want to run for your life.But where can you run? " Stephanie Daley" is an unflinching, sometimes hard to watch movie. Takes us to places we don't want to go, makes us remember things we'd like to forget. I am not sure Hollywood has a place for Hilary Brougher. People who have something to say can be nuisance. They can force us to think, and we can't have that,can we.

This is one of those movies that looks like it was developed from the Sundance workshops... and what do you know? Hallmarks of the category include female chauvinist perspectives, emasculated or violent male characters (if there are any men to speak of), long stagnant takes shot on digital video, and an aggressive tendency toward unresolved endings. This has most of them.And I don't care, because Tilda Swinton is plenty of reason to watch any movie. Even THE BEACH. Okay, I won't go that far. But she is pretty exciting. To paraphrase the old line, I'd pay to watch her go to the bathroom... and, in this movie, I get to. Several times. Be careful what you wish for, I guess. Not that I ever wanted that... alright, enough on this subject.Plus Amber Tamblyn, who far from sucks here, and Melissa Leo, who never gets enough to do in movies - though, Jesus, girl, you are racking up the films lately. I think Leo's made as many films in the last four years as she made her entire previous career - though, again, she usually doesn't get too many lines.Actually, Hilary Brougher raises this picture somewhat above its disadvantages through nuance, innuendo, and lack of blatancy, though this very ambiguity does ultimately queer the ending, as in, I don't really get what's going on with the shrink character when credits roll. Not that I need everything spelled out, but I need to know what language we're speaking. Perhaps Sudden Cutaway to Overexposed Window means something in Girrrlish.Maybe I need to bone up on my Independent Woman Filmmaker symbolism. Or maybe I need to shut up before I get slapped with a Thoughtless Human with Penis label and written into another script where men fail to make the world entirely comfortable for women.

While Tilda Swinton does another one of her typically marvelous performances, it is Amber Tamblyn who displays the surprisingly great acting chops in this film. I must admit that although I knew of her for her TV role in "Joan of Arcadia" and for the movie, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," let's just say that I don't think a 46 year old guy is typically in her target audience. After this role, however, I have no doubt that if she keeps her head on straight, she's the next great actress of her generation. As other commenter's have noted, her scene in the public bathroom on the ski trip is at times uncomfortable because of how devastatingly powerful it is. Tamblyn's performance deserves a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination at the very least, but because this film has barely been seen (even seemingly by the frequent movie-going audience of IMDb!), I doubt it's even on most people's radar.

I have no idea why this film, or many of the other Sundance films for that matter, are rated so low on IMDb. It's a shame, because this is a remarkable film.Amber Tamblyn gives the best performance of her career and deserves an Oscar for her subtle, eerie picture of teenage confusion, fear and malice. Tilda Swinton is also very good as the detective investigating Daley's case, and both Melissa Leo and Timothy Hutton give solid backup.See this movie - it is a frightening and eye-opening portrait of real life. ****/*****