ShangLuda Admirable film.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Maleeha Vincent It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Robin Turner If you watch this film thinking it's the one based on Half-Life the game, you will naturally be disappointed. There again, you will probably be disappointed anyway. The film starts with the familiar trope of people going about their everyday lives while the radio and TV give us hints of Impending Doom. "Oh, goody," you think, "civilization is going to collapse any minute now." Here's the spoiler: civilization doesn't collapse. This film has no plagues, zombies or mutant biker gangs. Instead we have a guy who's dating a woman and fancies her daughter plus a coming-out drama. Oh yes, and there's a kid who has mutant powers or may possibly be the Messiah. Or Damien, I'm not sure. We never find out, because he hardly ever uses his powers, and it's a case of "Blink and you've missed it." As far as I can tell, there is no reason why the kid should have these powers, and it doesn't tie in to the impending doom back-story. It's like someone wrote a run-of-the-mill family drama then thought, "Oh my, this is dull, let's put in a kid with mutant powers. And maybe have the world end."

Joey_D "Half-Life," Jennifer Phang's first feature film is an impressive debut. A blend of family drama, magic realism and sexual exploration. Set in the rolling hills of Northern California suburbia, "Half-Life" centers around the lives of Saura Wu (Julia Nickson), a mother of two struggling to keep herself together, her teenage daughter Pam (Sanoe Lake), her 10 year old son Timothy (Alexander Agate) and her live-in boyfriend of five weeks Wendell (Ben Redgrave).We learn that the family patriarch abandoned the trio some time ago. The aftereffects still resonate and are played out in Saura's hurried relationship with the much younger Wendell, Pam's crush on her gay friend Scott (Leonardo Nam) and Timothy's frequent escapes to an alternate reality. The latter provides the film's fantastic animated sequences courtesy of artists Matt Pugnetti, Catherine Tate and Ryan Schiewe, to name a few, which are sure to be compared to Richard Linklater's 2001 "lucid dream" "Waking Life." The performances in "Half-Life" are strong and evoke the sense of isolation the characters feel, none more so than young Agate's turn as the imaginative Timothy. Kudos to Phang for educing such a solid performance. Nickson and Lake are also note-perfect as the mother/daughter duo who are more alike than they realize, as they both battle to keep their lives in what little order they have left.The rest of the cast is rounded out nicely by James Eckhouse and Susan Ruttan as the voluntarily ignorant parents of the attention seeking Scott and Lee Marks as Scott's unassuming boyfriend Jonah."Half-Life" moves at a methodical pace reminiscent of Shyamalan at his best. Michael S. Patterson's beautiful score expertly complements, as well as haunts, the piece lending it a quiet calm amidst a canvas awash in turmoil. Cinematographer Aasulv Austad wonderfully captures the grace and charm and contrasting hustle and bustle of the East Bay Area.Hearkening back to Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" and the works of the late Robert Altman, Phang possesses a touch for creating relatable characters intertwined in multiple story lines. She's definitely one to keep an eye on. "Half-Life" is a stunning beginning to what looks to be a promising career.

fangli-633-311383 It was better than I expected from the trailer -- I was recommended by a friend who saw it at a film festival, and I found the themes resonating with the turmoil in many lives around me. Haunting and beautiful, eerie and prescient. The performances by the younger actors (Sanoe Lake and Alexander Agate) were inspiring and charged with the right level of emotional inflection to make their characters seem real. There was a really strong supporting cast, with quirky moments that were darkly funny. The animation, for an independent film, was creative and invoked the alternate reality quite well. I would definitely recommend the film, and it was great to see a new emerging female director premiere at Sundance!

Rafael Olavarrieta It's pretty well described as "pre-apocalyptic drama" (though I'm not sure "drama" is the right word… it does have pretty hilarious moments too.), where a family finds themselves in a world sunk in environmental chaos, while still trying to cope with their own problems. The focus, of course, is not in the setting, but the particular ordeals that the incredibly diverse family have to face: a stressed out mother, Saura, a jaded daughter, Pam, and a reclusive younger son with strange paranormal powers, Tim. Also surrounding the family is Saura's manipulative boyfriend Wendell and Pam's recently outed best friend Scott, for whom she happens to hold deeper feelings than mere friendship. And fully closing the circle there's Tim's teacher and Scott's lover. Oh, and did I forget to mention that Scott's parents are zealous Christians?The movie manages to blend in live-action scenes with beautifully hand-drawn surreal animated scenes to represent the main characters' fantasy world, giving it a really unique and original feel. I was even told by the filmmakers that they spent three years on the animation alone, so basically most of it was hand drawn frame by frame!As you can see, there are A LOT of stories to be told, and Jennifer Phang's script does it wonderfully, not leaving a single detail out. The script is beautiful, even poetic, with the characters and their motivations tangible in every scene. But the movie is not just drama; like when Scott is talking to his father about 'reasserting things'. Scott's reply is just PRICELESS: "reassert what, my rectum?". And with some very laugh out loud moments like that one, the movie takes on an even more realistic feel.One thing I really enjoyed was the music: it just felt RIGHT for every scene and it was beautifully written.If you're looking for a beautifully told -and on top of everything VERY HUMAN- story, Half- Life may just do it. I thoroughly enjoyed it!