Fantastic!

A Brilliant Conflict

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A Shakespeare competition for American college students in picturesque Italy makes for one of the most entertaining indie movies I've seen in quite a while (even if Complete Works calls itself a 5-episode web series). Lili Fuller, Adam North, and Joe Sofranko's debut feature (cause that's what it really is) turns out to be as delightful, captivating, and splendidly written and directed (by North and Sofranko) as just about any independent feature making the festival circuit. Gorgeous cinematography (by Ben Winchell), music (by Michael Kramer), production design (by Alicia Papanek), and costumes (by Michelle Lukiman) plus one winning performance after another from stars Sofranko, Fuller, Lizzie Fabie, Ben Sidell, Alex Skinner, and Chase Williamson, supporting players Michael Keenan, Daniel Montgomery, Laurie O'Brien, and Kevin Quinn, and cameo/guest players Jason Greene, Jessica Pennington, Vicki Lewis, Robert Merrill, and many more add up to one absolutely terrific movie (or web series, if you will). And what's even more amazing, it looks like it cost about 100 times its IMDb-estimated budget. Set aside a couple of hours and watch Complete Works straight through. You won't want to stop till the final fadeout!