I recorded this from IFC, not knowing what it was. From the brief description I thought it was a documentary, and still was buying into it for a couple of minutes, though I was growing a little skeptical. The jig was up at about five minutes in, when I recognized Jack Kehler, a character actor who I knew as the Dude's landlord from The Big Lebowski. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the film. I appreciate that they're trying to blur the line between fact and fiction. It's made in a way that might be convincing enough to work for those that haven't seen 10,000 movies; and don't remember almost every actors face.

The film opens with Michael Connor addressing the camera, asking the viewer to help him find his ex-girlfriend Grace. The acting and home video look is convincingly low-budget enough to make you believe that his plea is real. He begins by introducing himself and his cohorts behind the camera; a cutesy way to get you to buy into their amateur status. He shows us around his life; his job at a shoe store and his usual hangout, a coffee shop, where the aforementioned Jack Kehler hangs out as well.

It's obviously not enough to hang a feature film on, so that's where they come up with the fun idea of having an actress friend of his to play Grace and act out the important moments of their relationship. Nadia Dajani, who I also recognized immediately for being in a variety of things, plays Nadia, who plays Grace. As actors, Michael and Nadia have a good chemistry together, with a lot of playful bickering; she bitches about his lousy script-writing, laughing and then commiserating about the stupid things he did during his time together with the real Grace. And it's through their replaying of the relationship, that he realizes the reasons that Grace may have left. I don't want to give too much away, it's a fun film to discover on your own; they come up with some creative ways to play with the reality of films.

It's extremely hard to make films on no budget, so any way that filmmaker's can explore new ideas, is endearing in my world. Writer/director Michael A. Nickles came up with brilliant idea to sell the cheap photography, real-life locations and guerrilla film-making tactics and make it work for the film, not against it; while also making a funny and entertaining movie. It is nowhere near as slick as most romantic-comedies, but what it lacks in production values, it more than makes up for with originality. This Is Not A Film is for those of us looking for something different.

THIS IS NOT A FILM

Amelie is one of my favorite all time films, so when I saw the trailer for Love Me If You Dare a couple years later, it looked like an Amelie clone, a whimsical French romantic-comedy, shot in an overly colorful style. But I'd heard good things about the film, so my wife and I went and saw it anyways, we were pleasantly surprising when the film became so dark, that it took it's own path, that the films really have nothing beyond the colorful look, a narrator and being French in common.

Young Julian's mother is dying, she gives him a carousel tin, that soon becomes the catalyst for a lifetime of trouble. It begins when he meets a girl Sophie, who is being teased by the other students, while she's picking her books off the street, he hands her the tin, so he can sneak inside the bus and set in in motion while the rest of the kids are still inside. Soon after this his mother dies, he has no direction to go, Sophie and the tin are all that remain, and a dangerous lifetime of games of dare begins.

As long as one of them holds the tin, the other has to do whatever they want. The games are fairly innocent at first, ruining a table full of food at a wedding, sometimes they're just funny; but as they grow older, their games get worse and worse; until people are getting seriously hurt. For their own stupid selfish reasons they don't end up in a relationship together, although they are obviously in love, but the game rules their life. When Sophie dares Julian to leave her alone for 10 years, it seems like death to him, without the game, his life means nothing.

The film is beautifully made, gorgeously photographed; full of fun and memorable scenes. Both the leads, Guillaume Canet as Julien and Marion Cotillard as Sophie, have a wonderful chemistry together, and pull you into this dark fantasy. Written & Directed by first time feature filmmaker Yann Samuell has created a wonderfully dark romantic-comedy. I've always appreciated romantic-comedies that have a dark side, because while love can be the most wonderful thing in the world, it can also be the most painful, nothing can create more torment within one's soul. So light and airy romantic films never stick with me. This film the most messed-up ending for a romantic-comedy ever, they go to sickening lengths for their love.