Excellent, Without a doubt!!

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

'States Evidence' is an amazingly good film that highlights the major issues that strike America, even 10 years later. Teen epidemics like drug abuse, suicide, aspergers, heavily lacking on self awareness, and psychopathy alike.The film features a variety of well fleshed out characters that have their own unique personalities that in no way feel dry or stereotypical. Character personalities are defined by the character's actions, and as a result grow and change over the course of the film.The cinematography is great, and always feels natural in the way it presents itself to the viewer. The realistic way that the characters film their day to day life when meshed with the omniscient standard camera work feels totally seamless. The way that the director attempts to pull you into the story and care about its environs is completely immersive and never feels forced or off-putting.To be short on character count, I'll also add that the writing is top notch and the dialogue flows naturally. Every aspect of this movie is perfect, and if you have a spare hour I'd recommend you watch this film right away. It's on youtube, and youtube is always free!

I honestly have to wonder if many of the other reviewers have seen the same film as I. Unfortunately, I went into this film with very high expectations, as the premise and the content warnings seemed very much like they would deliver something compelling and extreme. The main red flag however, is that this was a low budget movie from a director who made no further films. This can sometimes mean something brilliant, but in this case, the film just barely steps above the bar of "cheap amateurish independent straight to video film".The Writing Style/Plot DevelopmentOne important thing to note is that this film is very dialogue driven, mainly with the monologues by the characters to the camera. I know well about the writing process, and as in plays, when your story is so heavily dialogue based, you're at a great risk of making your characters seem schizophrenic, because that dialogue is ultimately based on the episodic mood swings of the writer over a long period of time, crunched down into the short period of time within the material. The foremost problem with the material delivered by these young actors is that really, it sounds like dialogue written by a balding middle aged man who THINKS he knows how teenagers talk, feel, and rationalize, which is packed with tonnes of whiny pseudo intellectual nonsense, which because they're TEENAGERS, never goes full circle and often ends in vanity, triteness, or ambiguity, so in most cases a REAL concise reason for committing suicide is never established, and how each character's "inner thoughts" contradict from scene to scene shows that the writer himself did not BELIEVE the dialogue, and thus was unable to make it coherent and credible.Actors/CharactersMy first impression was that the directing was bad, but the story and idea were good. I began to think twice about this in how the instigator of the whole premise "Scott", tells his very eclectic group of friends about his idea one by one, who ALL think it's so cool and amazing, and that they too MUST commit suicide along with him. The young actors were fairly mediocre, aside from Kris Lemche as "Patrick" who was the only one really able to create a compelling character with some sort of screen presence. I personally did not like any of the characters, especially the main protagonist "Scott" who speaks like a programmed robot, so filled with technical analytical phrases, that he only comes across as a caricature, and his friends have a bit of this too. Even though they're supposed to be non mainstream, in this film, a hodgepodge of sub cultures and social backgrounds so that ALL BASES of teen anxiety are covered, it's hard to imagine anyone being that out of touch with the world they live in, and moreover, "Scott" is able to rationally convince the school bully to return their camera, that he stole, with this very irritating way of speaking.The Directing/Scene LayoutThe directing, combined with a very stagey unravelling of events is what I found amazing that so many other reviewers were able to overlook. The classroom scenes, with the protagonist goofing off with his camera were very badly handled. That just won't happen without the smart ass students as well as the teacher getting in your face about it, and most teachers would confiscate the camera, but no one says a word. Picture having a conversation on your telephone in a classroom. How ridiculous would that be? Also, Patrick's character, spying on everyone with his camera, looking up girl's dresses, masturbating in the girl's washroom, without being seen, heard, or getting in trouble, not to mention abducting a screaming 10 year old in a crowded supermarket, hauling her into the washroom where he rapes and kills her without being seen, heard or caught, is simply just not realistic.Suicidal MotivesThe real crux of the issue however is the suicidal motives of the characters and how they were handled. of the 4 characters who state their cases for WHY they plan to kill themselves: Scott: inner freedom. Sandy: testament to true love. Trudi: domestic discord. Patrick: homicidal urges? None of these are given much background or ANY aside from Trudi's case, though still not convincingly, who ridiculously enough, in all 6 of them is the only one who is shown to have typical problems of depression, the kind you see in most real life suicide cases. The characters, Rick and Cody, who we are given no inner insight into, are wasted, and seem very full of life rather than depression, Particularly Rick, who in this film represents typical quasi hip-hop culture, who doesn't seem to fit in with this group of people at all.Closing Notes/Film MessageI will close by touching on one of the very last phrases spoken into a camera by the character "Scott" and showing truly how badly the people involved in the making of this film do NOT understand their subject. "Do you want to know the real truth? I did it because I was bored. The number one killer of teenagers today isn't drugs or alcohol... It's just plain boredom.... AND I WAS BORED!". Not only is it hilarious, but it's just plain not true. Any deaths to teenagers caused by boredom result from "Accidental" not "suicidal" deaths such as car crashes, skateboard injuries, auto-asphyxiation or the like. The impulse of suicide tends to come from ANYTHING but boredom, and instead, derives from feeling horrible and emotionally destroyed for whatever causal reasons. True, the character can say anything, and it doesn't matter if it's true or not, but by now, he's been reduced to a talking point with a face, not a character. I watched this horrible film because I was bored, luckily, it did not make me want to kill myself.

State's Evidence is not a perfect movie: the audio is out of sync, the movie switches between hand-held and steady cams when it is presented in a shattered time-line, and the edited bits from the story were deeply needed to complete a link for the extremes some characters experience. Despite this, State's Evidence is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. It's political, truly entertaining, disturbing, and a beautiful look in the psychology of teenagers.The movie is led by an intelligent young man, Scott, who decides that he is going to commit suicide. He very calmly explains to the audience that he's going to film his day so that others may understand him, and that the psychologists reviewing the tape would have material to work with in forming theories about his state of mind.This well spoken boy then discovers the power of no consequences, giving him a boost of confidence. Since he's going to die, there could be no punishment. Without the fear of death, he is free to do whatever he wants. While trying to explain to his eclectic group of friends his plan and the freedom he feels, he inadvertently gives them all the idea to join him.Suddenly, the movie blossoms from a single POV narrative to a series of strung together stories from this small group of close friends. This is also where my biggest gripe comes from. The movie takes off from when they're given the cameras. The crew, at 4 Pm in the film room at their school, are editing the footage together from the various cameras (we know this from the occasional voice over and the way the footage cuts into each other's stories at times). However, the confusing camera (steady cam, hand-held) shifts still occur as though the story is being told linear. I cannot express how distracting this was. If they had left the entire middle portion the hand-held camera POV, and then finished up the finale with the steadycam, it would have come off more professional.As for the tales themselves, they are not perfect and, unfortunately, half of them are incomplete.Brian and Rick are tag-along characters. These two are about as shallow as characters come. Their actors, from what you see of them, are barely passable as high school kids. We are led to believe that they are just as serious about killing themselves as the other four, but in real life, they'd be the guys backing out first.Trudi and Sandy are the female logic/emotion coupling in the story. Trudi is a deeply complex girl who hides her real self behind a typical Gothic charade. She pretends like nothing bothers her when, in fact, she hates her whole life (and for very good reason). Sandy, however, a generic sweet girl who discovers a raging politician buried beneath the shallow layers of a girl who is defined as only being in the group because of her "puppylove" crush on Scott.Both girls flesh out to be deeper characters with deeper purposes behind their suicides. Unfortunately, Sandy, a more interesting character, gets shafted as she stumbles on her purpose and isn't allowed time to clarify. Finally, we have the emotion to versus Scott's logic, Patrick. Even though he was given a camera to share with Brian, Patrick winds up with his own separate film that's been spliced into the footage of the other character's. While they are about self discover and awakening, maturing and admitting their faults, Patrick's is about a darker side to self discovery.The characters do learn their life lessons. They do develop (except for Brian and Rick), and they do finish of their stories with a second discovery, and that's how they deal with life after all they've learned.The finale is a bit of a let down. Since the beginning, you've known things would spiral out of control. Patrick's maniac story left a bloody pink elephant standing in every scene he graced that nobody could ignore. Once Patrick gets control of the realm of storytelling, however, there is a sparkling gem in this otherwise lackluster ending... the final dialog of both Patrick and Scott.Patrick spins a monologue about human beings that is the dark side to Scott's philosophy. When Scott is given his piece as well, he finally admits the reason behind his decision to kill himself. His dialog has deeply lacked emotional input, as he is a man of the mind; his final words in the film dig up that buried emotion and tell us who the man behind the mind really is.This movie is definitely a must see.

I love the internet as I come on here and cost film makers money if I don't like their films, not in a vindictive way (well maybe) but generally if I feel ripped off or taken for a fool as with States Evidence.It is the worst sort of film, it's exploitation attempting and failing badly to be a meaningful examination of shootings in American schools. This is distasteful enough, but to do it in such a crass, arrogant, smug, naive way is unforgivable.Four out of the five of the main actors are in their twenties and look it (Kris Lemche was 28 when this was made) which along with the badly realised device of actors filming themselves totally destroys any sense of believability.Acting is self conscious and over the top and not helped by childish and pretentious dialogue. The deathless prose never ceases with a endless monologues of verbal diarrhea instead of structure and story.This all makes up for a truly annoying and boring film with a mawkish, insincere climax so amateurish that it made me laugh instead of cry.