My review (positive)

We need more movies like this. Please support this film. It became available on Amazon a couple weeks ago as a straight-to-video release.

This is true independent cinema, not the stuff at Sundance, which has become a de facto studio flea market. The writer-director of This Is Not a Test financed this movie partly out of his own pocket, hustled to get the cast and crew, and did the legwork on his own to find distribution. He earned it all, and rightly so - this story merits being seen.

Remember in the days shortly after 9/11 when they were saying irony was dead? That obviously didn't happen. There seems to be more cynicism than ever. The sincerity and thoughtfulness of This Is Not a Test is a real breath of fresh air. Writer-director Chris Angel tackles the pervasiveness of fear in our everyday lives with wit and humor, but though the main character's fear is the very end of the world, Angel rarely resorts to easy and obvious black humor. In fact, he has a refreshingly light touch and focuses more on the characters. He gets terrific performances out of lead actor Hill Harper, who gets to show a side of himself fans of CSI: New York will want to see more of; and he also draws out a performance from Tom Arnold that will remind people that the guy nearly stole True Lies right out from under Arnold Schwarzenegger and all those explosions!

This is the kind of movie where at the end you will find yourself wondering why Hollywood doesn't make more like them. Well, if you support filmmakers like Mr. Angel, maybe they will.

(In the interest of full disclosure: yes, I do know Chris Angel; no, I did not work on the movie; and yes, I stand by my review - this is a quality piece of work that compares favorably to 99% of the stuff that is released into movie theaters every weekend.)