It's rare these days I see a movie this well written AND acted. William H. Macy has directed and co-written an intelligent, beautiful and thought-provoking film. I've enjoyed Billy Crudup as an actor for many years and he did not let me down in this film. I love actors that can sweep you away from reality, if only for a few hours. Actors that do what they do so well you forget you're watching a film and become engrossed in their every move and word. Billy Crudup does that, and he does that in this film without flaw. Anton Yelchin, who normally is someone I just tolerate in a film, adds the magic that takes this film over the top and makes it something special and not just another film. This movie has everything; great acting, great music - great story and a great twist at the end. William H. Macy has proved again how talented of an individual he truly is. A great movie! I highly recommend it!

I'm dumbfounded. Truly. Not by the movie alone, but also - and perhaps more so - by the reviews of this movie. Firstly: I like William H. I always have. I think he's done some tremendous performances (Fargo, Magnolia and The Cooler, to name a few). So I have nothing against him. Quite the contrary. This movie was complete rubbish in my opinion. Not sure where to start, really, but here are a few quick remarks: * The lyrics and music written by the son indicates a persona pretty damn far from a school shooter. * The behavior of the son during the movie's first five minutes indicate nothing of a dark, sad or angry nature. On the contrary, the guy sits in his room recording love songs (...). He could have been depicted much more like Kevin Khatchadourian, and it still would have been a surprise once the twist was presented. Only more believable. * The twist - that is, that the son was the murderer, not a victim - is presented poorly. It was like William had figured out what the twist should be, without quite nailing how to actually execute it. If anything, the twist moment was confusing. And once I realized what had happened, no actions of any of the characters up to that point made any more sense than they had before. * The reaction of the father didn't make any sense either throughout the whole movie. Everything from him being hungry and microwaving a pizza pretty much right after the event took place, to him playing a loud guitar solo on-deck of a self- steering boat in the middle of a sailboat regatta. He never shows or expresses any feeling until the end, when he visits the school. That's fine, if you allow the character to build all the darkness up inside. But if that is what the character is doing, it needs to be shown on a completely different level. He drinks, sure. But even when he does, not much of it shows a sadness, frustration, a guilt or anything at all really. It's a little pathetic, yes, but never dark. * The mother gets a new kid after 2 years and supposedly "200,000 dollars". I dunno, but if my son had just killed 6 people at school, I'd probably chill for a while before trying to get a new oneI could keep going, but I don't think it's worth it. All I can say is you can easily skip this one without worry. As mentioned initially, I'm mostly surprised by all the positive reviews. I have no idea how on earth they found anything good with this movie at all. Interestingly enough, when I found people criticizing it, they just went on a tangent about school shootings in general, instead of explaining the weak points of the movie. To sum up: I found Rudderless too shallow for its subject, and to treat its subject too lightly. I found nothing remarkable about the acting, and the plot felt far from ripe. I don't see any point in expressing my opinion of the music - I find that irrelevant. But I guess you could say it's as shallow as the movie itself, which I guess is the only thing that makes sense.

I just watched the movie and brimming with emotions, gave the movie an 8. Maybe as I re watch it, I might bring the rating to 7; as I said, this is a movie that could have been great but falls short of it. The title not only signifies the band but the position in which the lead character finds himself in. And if a movie is about reviving one's life with music and revolves around music, the makers need to deliver on that front. And they did !Rudderless has some soulful lyrics with music that doesn't overpower the vocals thus making it a good entertainer. Coupled with Billy Crudup's acting and a strong character based story, the movie delivers. Selena Gomez looked completely out of place thus proving how one can weaken a movie a tad even if they have a 2min role. Somewhere I believe they could have worked on Crudup's character a little more and bind the entire story more tightly..

I thought the movie was great. There were a few scenes that left me empty. Or incomplete and saying - huh? The lips poster scene especially felt incomplete. It was as if they were leading the audience to believe that Quiton may somehow be connected to Josh or the shooting in some way? This also seemed apparent when Lawrence Fishburn comments on Quintons response to Sam being Josh's father or ,"the father of the shooter?" Just odd responses with no real closer or conclusion. OR...You could say the artistic under current was to make you feel uncomfortable and perhaps that was the direction or oddity here. :) Very enjoyable film Music excellent Characters were great