Small, Beautifully Moving Parts (2011) Reviews

• a real gem

  ijfrank592012-05-22

  The movie was so modestly done and yet able to explore large themes in an incredibly sensitive and honest way. It was understated and convincing, rare in many American movies that hit you over the head. The beautiful details and shots conveyed the full emotional range of even the minor characters. At the same time the viewer was left wondering how the various events would unfold, enjoying the vagaries of this journey of exploration. The actors were similarly extremely natural, believable and moving in their emotions. Funny, moving, engaging and inspiring, this movie blends together the best of finely-honed craft and documentary flexibility. A real gem!

• Beautiful Movie!

  allenk-375-8817012012-05-20

  What a beautiful, smart, entertaining and touching movie! We were laughing, crying, and intrigued ...perfect combination for a movie. The characters were rich and you really cared about them. The sub plot of technology and our relationship to it and those people around us made for a clever and endearing platform. Sarah Sparks is a quirky, adorable character traveling across country in an effort to connect with her unborn child. Her time in Vegas with her sister in law is the perfect dichotomy between woo woo and the digital age. The directing team of Annie Howell and Lisa Robinson is truly talented and has created characters you not only relate to, you care about, and you want to see what happens next! This movie will speak to you! It's a must see!

• Small, honest film

  TheMarwood2014-07-17

  Our pregnant lead hits the road to find her estranged mother and make a few stops to a small cast of characters along the way. Small, Beautifully Moving Parts is a tiny, mostly insignificant film, but Anna Margaret Hollyman gives a honest performance that will hopefully spawn a successful career. This is her show and she makes this simple, straightforward material worth watching. It's an acting piece that's poorly shot, but despite being crudely made, it's never boring and a pretty sincere no budget film. Definitely better than its low IMDb score and worth a viewing for the lead performance alone.

• Quiet & Honest Indie

  larrys32017-02-03

  I found this to be a quiet and honest indie, where not everything works but there was enough here to keep my interest throughout. Anna Margaret Hollyman stars as Sarah, a young woman who after discovering she's pregnant, feels rather numb and lost about motherhood. She decides she will try and locate her estranged mother, who has "gone off the grid" and disconnected almost entirely from her family. Sarah thinks there must be something she can learn from her mom as to why she left, so perhaps Sarah won't repeat her mother's actions. The movie, at only 1 hr. and 12 mins. in length, has a number of quirky elements and characters in it. I felt the characters also were not just "cookie cutouts" and were rather unpredictable, which I liked. All in all, the film, written and directed by the team of Annie J.Howell and Lisa Robinson, had some rough edges but its quiet tone and storyline that went in directions I didn't always expect made it a decent watch for me.

• Very nice indie movie, good cast

  badland2015-06-27

  First of all, I don't understand why one of the negative reviews spent so much time to tell us what she thinks in a bunch of paragraphs. Sounds like someone who never got to make their movie. Anyways, it's a very nicely made indie, a surprisingly good cast that follows a cliché story about that first baby thing, but the lead carries it off well and I enjoyed the trip. The Vegas idea worked well, but it always can do that when you're not sure where to go. I'm okay with the blonde girl and African American husband/lover, just seems to me it's become a cliché but again, I like all the characters. Okay, being an old DP, I liked how it was shot for what was probably a minimal budget, angles were excellent and it was edited nicely, again for whatever the cost was. While this baby/uncertain/who am I story has been seen before, it settles fine with me, the lead actress gives us a fresh look. I've done a few road films so I can't help going with her to locations like the Grand Canyon and again... it WORKS. I loved her shooting photos of strangers at Grand Canyon. Very revealing subplot here and it WORKS. Dialog is good, it's simple, especially Grand Canyon. You should see Francis Coppola's Rain People which is strikingly similar, which was Coppola's second movie before Godfather. The idea with using the kid's audio-video thing to speak to her mother works neatly, I liked it. Only thing near the end is that mom looks more like grandmother rather than mom. A nice 72 minutes spent.