Faults

Plot synopsis:
Ansel Roth, a writer and cult specialist, fraudulently uses an expired voucher to pay for a meal at a hotel restaurant and is forcibly removed after refusing to pay. The manager of the hotel tells Roth that his speaking engagement is almost ready, and Roth steals towels and batteries as he checks out. His presentation on cults is interrupted by a heckler, who proceeds to beat him up for his involvement in the suicide of a troubled woman, the man's sister, who had been involved with a cult. Evelyn and Paul approach Roth and request an autographed copy of his book for their daughter, Claire, who they explain has become involved in a mysterious cult. Roth declines to become involved.
Mick, an employee of Roth's manager Terry, approaches Roth in the hotel's parking lot and delivers a letter. Terry has dropped Roth as a client and wants Roth's debts paid back within a week. Evelyn and Paul again request his help, and he agrees to listen to their story when they offer to buy him breakfast. Roth offers to deprogram Claire, a risky process that involves abducting her and confronting her with the truth about the cult. Roth hires two men to help him abduct Claire; one of them strikes her during the abduction. They take her to an isolated motel and prevent her from sleeping.
After paying the men, Roth begins the process of deprogramming. Excited that she is being cooperative, he lets Claire momentarily see her parents, who are in an adjoining room. Paul becomes increasingly demanding and controlling of both the situation and his daughter, and Paul becomes enraged when Roth meditates. The deprogramming is interrupted when Mick locates Roth and again demands payment. Roth awkwardly requests half of his fee from Paul, who reluctantly agrees. Roth advises Paul and Evelyn to lock Claire in the bathroom overnight (he has moved the lock to the outside) to prevent her from escaping while he is gone.
When Roth delivers partial payment to Terry, Terry berates him for letting people walk over him, strikes him with a paperweight, and demands the rest of the money in two days. Roth is surprised to find Claire unconscious outside the hotel room. When he brings her back inside, her parents say she was locked in the bathroom; Claire claims to have teleported herself using meditation techniques learned from the cult. As pressure mounts on Roth, he suffers from lack of sleep, physical abuse, and threats from everyone but Claire, who seduces him as he experiences a nervous breakdown. Afterward, Roth watches a videotape of his failed television show while Claire has sex with Paul in the background as Evelyn watches.
Roth wakes in his car. He rushes to the hotel room, where he finds Claire alone. She explains that her parents have left and seems puzzled when Roth confusedly questions her about the videotape and her sexual encounters. Roth and Claire become accidentally trapped in the bathroom when the door closes and locks from the outside. As the phone rings, Roth becomes hysterical, knowing that it must be Terry. Claire takes control of the situation, and forces him to face his many failures, including his divorce and guilt over the young cult member's suicide. Roth tearfully admits that he exploited the girl for his short-lived television series. As Claire leads him in meditation, she breaks him completely and convinces him that he has unlocked the bathroom door using his mind.
As they exit the bathroom, Mick enters the hotel room. Terry follows him there after he becomes impatient and is horrified to find Mick dead. Terry explains that Mick was just an actor hired to intimidate Roth. Roth kills Terry as Claire silently observes. Claire, now in complete control, tells Roth to wait in the car while she takes care of something. Paul and Evelyn, hidden in the next room, say they have murdered the man who struck her during her abduction. They identify her as Ira and she thanks them for their help, kisses them, and hands each a pill, which they swallow before lying down. When she joins Roth in the car, he apologizes to her for the car door being broken. She tells Roth to not apologize for anything because they have each other and they are strong. When he asks where he is going, she replies, "Home."

Tags: brainwashing, comedy, cult, murder, violence

Review:
Let me make this clear from the beginning, even if some might claim to see where this is going, you can have a lot of fun watching it develop and going to its destination.The acting is really great and even if the main character is a bit unlikeable, he still is able to pull quite a few things off.
In the last 5 years, we have been watching films such as Martha Marcy May Marlene, Red State, Sound of My Voice and The Sacrament, whose focuses vary considerably, but they all examine the disturbing phenomenon of brainwashing, and the apparent ease with which some people let themselves be dominated by charismatic leaders who promise some kind of spiritual salvation when, in fact, they only seek their own benefit.
The film Faults presents a very interesting perspective, moving away from the "commune" and the specific details of the cult, in order to focus into the regenerative process of lost identity.
something like the classic alcoholic detective from various cop films, or the priest without faith who is so common in horror cinema, but even more down at heel (I point out the fact that Faults doesn't belong to either of those genres).
This tortuous main character complicates the situation more, and makes a Faults a subtle and fascinating thriller, in which not only the victim's future is in danger, but also her redeemer's.
The screenplay of Faults shines because of its precision and sagacity, keeping us in suspense during the whole film, until leading to a satisfactory ending.
And then, we have the excellent performances, starting by Leland Orser as the main character.
Orser is one of those actors whose names we don't know, even though we immediately recognize their faces when we see them in a film or TV series.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead also brings a perfect performance as the victim of the cult; she's modulated in her role, but she never loses spontaneity or passion.
The screenplay of Faults might occasionally make a few small traps, but that didn't avoid me from liking it very much, and I definitely recommend it as a hypnotic and audacious thriller, specially to those ones who find the concept and existence of "cults" equally intriguing..
The story revolve around a cult group called Faults and two characters...
and Claire whose parents approach Ansel in desperation to get their daughter back from the cult...
It's a place where pressure builds until it releases."Leland Orser and Mary Elizabeth Winstead star together in this unique dramatic thriller written and directed by Winstead's husband, Riley Stearns.
Faults is his feature debut and after this, there is no doubt he's going to be getting more offers because it is a very inventive drama that feels like no other movie because it changes and morphs as the story progresses.
It is hard to classify this film because it doesn't feel like any other movie I've seen.
Orser plays Ansel Roth, an expert on mind control, but it is clear that his glory days are long behind him.
The girl's name is Claire (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and she claims to be at the happiest point in her life so apparently it won't be an easy job for Ansel who is going through his personal lowest.
Faults is a low budget indie film but it never ceases to amaze with a production design that sets the film somewhere around the early 80's although there is no mention of when the story actually takes place.
The film is perfectly executed, it has an interesting premise, and the screenplay is beautifully written by Riley Stearns as it transforms along the way.
Faults isn't trying to fool us, instead it is simply telling a story that unfolds in unexpected ways as we reach the climactic finale.
We believe he actually knows his stuff on mind control and free will but life has given him an unexpected blow that he seems to be able to recover from.
On the other hand Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Claire is enigmatic and we never know what she is really thinking.
Winstead delivers one of the best performances of her career as well and the two turn Faults into a highly engaging and hypnotic film well worth your time.http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/.
Original, well acted, and well produced/edited.This film is well worth seeing if you like original, well produced movies.From the beginning you are never really sure where the characters are heading - until the end.The characters draw you into their world and keep you there.
I had never seen any of the cast in previous movies, so it was refreshing seeing new faces (to me) bring the story to life.Whatever expectations you have for this film just forget them and let the story telling take you where it is going to go..
Ansel (Leland Orser) is a failed expert on cults, once widely regarded for his books and television show and his ability to "deprogram" those brainwashed by cult leaders, but now - after a spectacular failure - he is barely making it through the day by selling another, shoddier book and giving "seminars" at dumpy hotels in return for a room and a meal.
When an older couple approaches him to ask for his help in restoring their cult-taken daughter Claire (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), he reluctantly agrees, only because his former manager is hounding him for a rather large sum of money that Ansel owes.
With some help, he kidnaps Claire and begins the process of deprogramming her in an anonymous hotel room, but it soon becomes unclear as to who is treating whom....This is kind of a strange movie, neither fish nor fowl as they used to say; in some parts, it's quite funny and absurdist, and in other parts, it's deadly serious.
The acting is fine throughout (though it's odd that the IMDb doesn't name the actor playing Claire's father!) and the sort of quietly desperate, slightly sleazy world which the characters inhabit is shown well, but I was left scratching my head at the end of it, going "huh?" A bit disappointing, really..
I started off really loving this movie and was really hooked by the opening scenes setting up the main character, who is played to perfection by Leland Orser.
A washed-up "expert" on cults and brainwashing, his character is sad, funny, and interesting all at the same time.
You also really empathize with him and feel his sense of desperation and frustration at the start of the movie.As the story unfolds, a mother and father approach him offering desperately needed money if he would be willing to kidnap their daughter from a cult and reprogram her back to "normal." So far so good and everything leading up to his character retrieving the girl and beginning his treatment seems promising.
I was expecting a more interesting series of twists and turns and looked forward to seeing the enticing cat and mouse mind game that the movie seemed to be setting up.
Instead, the movie just kind of got inexplicably stranger and ended up taking a path that I felt was a bit too predictable and unsatisfying.It's worth checking out for Orser's performance and character alone.
Dips A Bit As It Goes, But Still Fun. Claire (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is under the grip of a mysterious new cult called Faults.
Desperate to be reunited with their daughter, Claire's parents recruit one of the world's foremost experts on mind control, Ansel Roth (Leland Orser).Writer-director Riley Stearns cited Paul Thomas Anderson's works, namely "Punch-Drunk Love", the Coen Brothers' "Fargo", Yorgos Lanthimos' "Dogtooth" and "Alps" among the many works he was inspired by.
To prepare themselves for the role, Winstead and Orser read the book "Let Our Children Go" by Ted Patrick and watched YouTube videos from that era of people in cults or people who had just gotten out of cults.
I'll always remember Leland Orser for his nervous role as a surviving victim of Se7en's John Doe. I've probably seen him in bit parts since without realizing it's him, but Faults reveals his talent as he steps up to the task of a leading role.
Its premise of cult manipulation is immediately compelling, and it frames its story in a way that's offered skimmed over when it's portrayed on film and never committed to a full 90 minutes.
Faults is a very confident debut, but it's a shame that the film wilts in its second half.
Hired to deprogram a young woman who has fallen victim to an abusive cult, an expert in mind control techniques starts to question whether or not there is actually some value to her cult in this curious independent film.
From the outset, the movie seems like a contemporary updating of the likes of 'Split Image' and 'Ticket to Heaven' -- two sensational films from the early 1980s about rescuing youths from religious cults -- but the results here are decidedly different as the film ends up as anything but a straight drama.
There are elements of comedy, drama, mystery, thriller, horror and even fantasy throughout, and while all this genre-hopping is sometimes detrimental (none of the comedy really works and the scenes with the protagonist's publisher and his hired goon do not quite fit in) for the most part, the multi-genre style renders the film a perfectly unsettling experience.
Suffice it to say though, the ending is endlessly creepy and for a film that is not overtly horror, the chill that 'Faults' sends down the spine is incredible..
Story: A writer of a book (and some times active deprogrammer) about how to override the influence of cults and sects on supposed vulnerable new recruits has some faults one of which is a past failed deprogramming.
The film characters were not so complicated, but towards the end it looked like unavoidably becomes that way.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is very good here, really gripping on to her character in surprising, unexpected ways, even if she can't really elevate the film that much more.
Leland Orser plays an expert on debunking cults, who has fallen on very hard times.
Ansel is giving a presentation about cults at a hotel.
At the start of the movie, He believes he is entitled to a free meal in exchange for the presentation, but his scam doesn't work.
Knowing Ansel is an expert on cults, they ask him to get their daughter Claire out of a cult.
His second book is not selling,Ansel hires goons to find and kidnap Claire.
Still, signs are there that Claire may come back to her old life.With Terry still demanding his money, Ansel asks Paul for half his fee.
Paul protests, but Ansel doesn't want to be visited by Terry's goons, and he delivers the money to Terry, who seems nice but shows another side entirely.
So what we have to ask is whether Ansel will be able to return Claire to her old life.
I didn't see the VCR, but we see a tape of a TV episode where Ansel takes advantage of a victim of a cult, making money and getting famous by showing the world her emotions.
Leland Orser is definitely funny, but comes across as quite intelligent when he finally shows he knows what he is doing.
Flawed but interesting black comedy about cults and deprogramming.
The film starts out overtly comedic about a down on his luck author and cult expert on a very low rent book tour.
On this darkly funny and depressing book tour he's approached by a couple who want his help rescuing their daughter form a cult.
Their daughter, an excellent Mary Elizabeth Winstead, is then held captive in a a hotel room with the cult expert for a character duel along the lines of "Death and the Maiden" or "Oleanna," where interesting power dynamics emerge between the two.
Leland Orser, who's on my list of great one-scene-performances for his one scene in "Seven" as the lust victim in the massage parlor, gives a great performance here as the troubled cult expert, though it's really Winstead who steals the film.
I admit it...love MEW, the main character, name escapes me, always does a good job as well, so I thought I'd catch this even though I feel the deprogramming a cult member has been done more than enough.
In Faults its "Ansel" played by Leland Orser a 50s writer/expert on cult control.
Faults is a movie that doesn't really fit into a specific genre, but it has elements of dark comedy, drama and a bit of mystery while being set more as a character study piece.Great performances all around with Leland Orsher and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who I will definitely be looking forward seeing more from) in the 2 leads.It's about a man (Orsher) who's a specialist on cults and mind-control who's asked to revert a cult-member's mind (Winstead) to a 'normal' way of thinking.More part of the movie takes place in one setting but it never gets boring as the characters are rich and interesting..
I found the film disturbing and unpleasant.When the movie starts, it's a comedy.
A complete loser named Ansel (Leland Orser) is doing crappy workshops where he talks about cults and cult deprogramming.
He's darkly funny to watch and I enjoyed the film...so far.The plot then thickens.
A set of parents inexplicably recruit this idiot to deprogram their daughter who's been caught up in a cult called "Fault".
I thought this was a brilliant movie, from the bizarre introduction of a grown man trying to reuse a coupon to get a free meal and then being forcefully removed from the hotel restaurant to only discover he is the main speaker holding a seminar on mind control cults.It was a great introduction to the, main character and his struggle to recover from his previous success as a leading authority cult specialist to living hand to mouth trying to make ends meet.
Amazing film with explosive ending and very disturbing scenes **Spoilers**.
Amazing little indie that came off as a black comedy and then drifts into darkness, while pulling you along.The acting's smart, the pacing's crisp, the jokes register darkly, and the dialogue snaps.After researching this movie and not finding an appropriate answer, one scene that really stands out is: Once Ansel is watching his TV interview, one can barely see schemes of "Dad" having sex with Claire, while "Mom" is watching.
Cult members who, under her guidance, pretended to be her parents so she could brainwash Ansel.
seemed to be an exiting film about saving a girl from a cult, the complex mind game it takes to deprogram someone.
so instead of being this poor confused girl, she turns out to be a psychological master mind, easily making his victim throw away any form of sensible reasoning.the story seemed to be all over the place, and as you near the end, you realize that they tie it together in the worst possible form they could.
Taking a look at IMDbs Film Festival board,I spotted a plan for an IMDb fest based around a series of titles.With not having heard about the film before,I decided to take a look at the page for Faults,which I discovered featured Final Destination 3 scream queen Mary Elizabeth Winstead,which led to me getting ready to discover who is at fault.The plot:Getting in debt by self-publishing his advice book on how to pull troubled minds out of "cults", Ansel becomes increasingly uninterested in the people who attend his book tour.Lashing out at an audience member after they blame him for the death of a teenage girl who appeared on his now-cancelled TV show,Ansel tells the crowd to pay him some cash so that he can sign their books and then leave.Walking on tiptoes up to him, Evelyn and Paul ask Ansel if he can help them to get back their "baby girl" Claire,who has gone and joined a cult.Initially dismissive of their requests,Ansel finds the couples willingness to cover his costs to be a real charm bracelet.Suspecting from the details they give that Claire is at the deep end with the cult,Roth tells Evelyn and Paul that the only option left for them is to kidnap Claire and take her to a remote location,where she can be de-programmed.
Receiving the thumbs up from the parents,Ansel goes and kidnaps Claire.
Placing Claire in a secure isolated location,Ansel begins the intense de-programing program,but soon begins to fear that Claire may not be the one who is getting de-programmed.View on the film:Filmed in just 18 days,writer/director Riley Stearns shows no faults in his excellent debut,which mixes jet-black Comedy with nerve- shredding indie chills.
In order to stay one step ahead of his agent (aka threatening creditor) he accepts a commission from Claire's parents to de-program her.A synopsis leads you to believe that this is a drama: it turns out to be a mystery (indeed, you may still be baffled by some of it when it ends), a character study and, at times, a very black comedy.Ansel is played by Leland Orser.
The average reaction on reading the name is "Who?", but the average reaction on seeing the face is "Oh, him!" - having had a lengthy and successful career playing supporting parts, he gets a lead role here and is phenomenal.Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Claire.
I started watching this, and stopped it after his presentation at the hotel so I could get other people to enjoy this with me because it looked like a good one.
It's as if Winstead and Orser were in two different movies and I wouldn't have recommend either of them to anyone..
I have to declare an interest : i chose the film on the basis it starred Mary Elizabeth Winstead whom i'd watched for the first and only time in 10 Cloverfield Lane.
As in Cloverfield Winstead gives a restrained and on this occasion slightly sinister performance while Leland Orser's depiction of desperate penury is utterly convincing and motors the film on.