it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Blistering performances.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Taking the road less traveled, "Dark Hearts" is an edgy indie film that explores the dynamics of love and hate, creation and destruction in a modern subculture that is reminiscent of the salons in Paris during the 18th century. Set against the backdrop of the postmodern minefield of the contemporary urban landscape, the heady mixture results in a cocktail that takes the viewer through a psychological labyrinth rarely found in mainstream film. The performances are excellent and provide insight to the shadows and light that make the characters come alive with a gritty realism against an nearly surreal backdrop. This film is a must see for thrillers that travel off the beaten path!

This film was remarkable for its lack of movement. There is indeed something of a story line, but it has no motion or tension to it. The feeling is flat and inconsequential from beginning to end. The giveaway is that you are not drawn into either the story or the characters. The idea of blood as an essential component of this artist's work has a "so what" resonance to it, i.e. it's a fact but there is no reason to care. The writing is embarrassingly ridden with clichés, and are lines are delivered by characters with no depth and actors with no breadth. While on the face of them certain developments are dramatic, you are consistently left with the feeling that nothing is happening. You want to be drawn in, but the story and the writing won't let you.Take a chance if you feel like it, but I found this film to be one of the worse I've seen in a very long time. Not at all recommended.

"Dark Hearts" is truly a fantastic film! It kept me on the edge of my seat and had me guessing to the end...which I didn't see coming. The story line is very unique and suspenseful. The acting was also very good, with notable performances from Kyle Schmid and Sonja Kinski. I've got to check out more of their films after watching "Dark Hearts". The cinematography is breathtaking at times and has some great shots. The director did a great job putting all the pieces together. Whoever did the location scouting I am envious of, and the set design was also very artistically done.I recommend this film to all you thriller lovers out there. You won't be disappointed.

Dark Hearts is a vampire story that isn't a vampire story—a figurative take on well-worn folktales characterized by a literal thirst for blood, heightened sexuality, and bodily immortality. Such folklore has been exploited time and again by shrewd marketers targeting young adults—the demographic most driven by hormones, afflicted with delusions of invincibility, and unschooled in artistic discrimination. DH strikes at the core of these primordial desires but raises the creative bar by taking the literal to the figurative. It's been argued that all successful artists attain immortality through fame as do the subjects they choose to depict—so long as each model's essence is truly captured by the artist, and perhaps even sacrificed by the model for the sake of the work. If this be the case, then screenwriter Christian Piers Betley has successfully married the symbolic immortality of fine art to the time-honored vampiric folklore to engender a unique brand of bloodlust and a far more plausible anti-heroic struggle for immortality. Betley's story flourishes under the direction of Rudolf Buitendach (a man with an apparent love for the industrial underbelly of Los Angeles) who draws impressively visceral performances from stars Kyle Schmid (who plays struggling artist, Colson) and Lucas Till (Colson's naive younger brother, Sam) as well as from newcomer Sonja Kinski (sultry singer and kept girl, Fran) who moves deftly between femme fatale and fragile waif. Theme-wise, other volatile ingredients in the pot include fraternal rivalry, psychological addiction, paranoia, mental/physical abuse, and men with guns—all of the makings of a complex thriller and a Shakespearean tragedy. Some characters could have been imbued with a bit more dimension. For example, Goran Visnjic plays the all-too-familiar violent mobster with no apparent motive beyond a psychopathic need to possess and harm. Overall, however, DH is a winning, atmospheric debut piece from an up-and-coming filmmaker whose future work I await with anticipation.