You just don't find 'indie' films like this everyday. It's apparent that the film-maker, writer, and star of the film(same guy) considered this a labor of love. Nursing it from short-film Oscar winner, to no-lesser(if not much better) feature film sleeper- diamond.There are very few flaws, and none are really worth harping about, so let's get to the meat of what makes this a great film.First. The characters. It's rare that a film doesn't follow every cliché character with every cliché action. The bad guys aren't that bad, and the good guys aren't that good. Characters evolve within 100 minutes, and they may never be the same again.From Ron Perlman(fantastic as usual), to Emmy Rossum, to the writer/director Shawn Christensen, to newcomer Fadima Ptacek... every character goes through a metamorphosis. Every actor does a fine job. The film may be a low-budget film, but the acting doesn't show it..Second. Neither does the look. The film looks great. It's certainly not epic in scale, but it has enough artistic flare to put it above a lot of bigger-budget films. THird. The film oozes with style. From the slow-pans(not overdone - see It Follows) to the color.. It's a dark film with clever and bright color in conservative doses.. kinda mirrors our characters that way.Fourth. The Music. Great soundtrack. Diverse and perfectly placed within the film. Worth owning.It's perfectly paced. Not in a hurry, and far from boring."Before I Disappear" could have stretched-on another half-hour and I wouldn't have objected in the least. But, the story was complete, and much like making a craft beer or painting, don't overdo it. Put in just enough to make it perfect, or near-perfect anyway. It's so easy to mess-it-up, and Shawn showed a lot of restraint with this project. It isn't over-written, nor is it "over-shot", it isn't over- thought, it's quit simply... delightful.It's currently(as of 3-4-16) on NETFLIX. I highly recommend catching this film as soon as possible. 2014 was an extremely good year for movies(*even better now). So, it was as much as a surprise to me as it may be to you, that I moved this film into my "Top 25 of 2014"(#8 sitting right behind Birdman#6, and Guardians of the Galaxy#7) I don't give out many 9s. I've only given 43-10s and 135-9s out of 3,650 votes. This is as solid a "9" as I've passed out over the last two years. Massive kudo's to SHawn Christensen. I will watch every single film that he offers-up moving forward.Warning Spoiler Coming*Spoiler Summary* Richie is suicidal, and has every intention on making THIS the day he goes through with it. But a desperate phone call from his estranged but still loved sister spins his day and night in a different direction. He meets his niece, who sees him for what he is, a junkie, a loser. Richie runs around the town picking up the pieces of his life, and his sisters, making new friends and re-living/mending relationships along the way.

This is one of those films, at least some films are like this for me, that lumber along until they are finally over, and I find that I was neither much interested as it progress or disappointed that it was over. One of those films where I am baffled as to what went wrong. Sometimes, I think that I just don't understand "directing" and when a film fails for me it must be because it was poorly directed. Film written, directed and acted my a single individual often have this feel.The storyline in this one is really a bunch of best separated events somehow threaded together. The actor/director places himself way too often as the focus of the story.In the end this film reminds be a moving picture version of those angst-ridden/tortured soul/lonely iconoclast album cover shots by solo musicians. Even Springsteen had some of those.

"Before I Disappear" was birthed from director Shawn Christensen's 2013 short film "Curfew," which won Best Live Action Short Film at the Academy Awards that year. I remember watching the short film and simply being captivated by its portrayal of ugly yet realistic characters in a seamy environment, so much so that I called it "a wonderful exercise in style, emotion, human interaction, and existential purpose." With the accolades and recognition "Curfew" received, it was only a matter of time before the short would be adapted into a feature-length project, and, thankfully, the core focus of the film and its characters didn't find themselves lost in translation.This is a film of tone, realism and germane surrealism, and companionship, four ideas that one would assume would make for an awkward, uneven film but mesh so well together thanks to Christensen's carefulness that the end product is something to behold. The film concerns Ritchie (Christensen), an aimless and depressed twentysomething working for a seedy nightclub run by Bill (Ron Perlman). His will to live is waning day-by-day after his girlfriend Vista has mysteriously disappeared, and, upon finding the corpse of a young female in the nightclub bathroom, Ritchie is ready to call it quits.He goes home, fills a bathtub full of water, and proceeds to take a sharp razor and slit his wrists, ending his miserable existence. His suicide attempt is interrupted by Maggie ("Shameless"'s Emmy Rossum), who phones him asking to pick up her eleven-year-old daughter Sophia (Fátima Ptacek, who voices Dora on "Dora the Explorer") from school and look after her while she takes care of other things. Reluctantly, Richie exits hit bloody bathtub, bandages his wrists, throws on old clothes, lights a cigarette and heads off to pick Sophia up. Sophia is exactly the kind of precocious tot that Richie needs in his life, regardless of whether or not he knows it. Sophia is meticulous, organized, and grounded in a world where all there is is homework and poetry. She's drawn realistically and not conjured up from the barrage of clichés one expect from this character. She's sensitively played by Ptacek, who is only fourteen-years-old, and just when you think her character is a caricature, she surprises and comes to be a wonderful addition to not only the story but Richie's life.Richie and Sophia wander the streets, with Richie being hunted by loansharks and mob bosses for his failure to pay back old debts, going from several seedy locations before finding some sort of solace and connection at a bowling alley. This scene is almost identical in structure and setup as "Curfew," but with it being bookended by more familiarity and involvement with the characters, it takes on a greater significance. It provides for a momentary discourse in Richie's miserable existence, as he watches Sophia freely dance down the lane of the alley, with people shaking their hips with bowling balls in their hands at the front of each lane. This adds to the surrealism aspect I mentioned earlier, in that while "Before I Disappear" explores realistically-drawn characters with serious problems and shortcomings, it also welcomes intriguing surrealism into the mix, bending the reality our disillusioned character lives in. Consider when Richie takes a handful of menopause pills (which he believes are sleeping pills that will turn fatal if he takes enough) and hallucinates one of his collectors coming after him; it's one of the greatest surrealist scenes in a film predicated off of being human and realistic."Before I Disappear" has received the most flak from people who saw "Curfew," weren't a big fan of it to begin with, and then cringed at the thought of watching the short stretched out for ninety-three minutes. Those who enter blindly, and have never seen "Curfew," will likely get the most enjoyment out of it, or those, like me, who enjoy stories about believable and real characters, will find several things to appreciate.

I give this an 8 and I don't do it lightly. I'm also not rating it highly as an indie, it's good compared to any project. This movie is absolutely haunting. The writer has a deep understand of people and displays them so realistically. I really liked the fact that it didn't have cliché characters. The "gangsters" don't do what you expect them to do. The things people did in this movie weren't over the top, it felt very real.The cinematography and shots were fantastic in this movie. It was at times like a dream or an acid trip and it never felt out of place. The transitions between hallucinations and real life were not stark and abrupt like in other movies where someone is tripping. Shawn Christensen is going to be the director to watch out for in the future. The casting was perfect. Everybody was good. I just dislike Ron Perlman because he gets cast in this type of role in so many movies that it's starting to be a cliché, still he was great.Christensen is also a great writer. This movie was at once deeply sad and entertaining. Casting Fatima Ptecek as Sophia was perfect. She was the pillar of light for Richie's darkness and she was just a delight to watch. There really is something special about Ptecek. She's the next Abigail Breslin.