This is not a B-movie, because you can tell that the director really put an effort in making something special, at which he failed spectacularly.

Not anything good? The actors aint terrible, although they most certainly do not have any charisma or acting talent. The photography is okayish, although quite bland and often boring to watch.

The bad: what is most troubling about this movie is that it is incredibly tedious. I get it, some movie directors use silence and still shots wherein nothing much happens, to enlarge an emotion, but only the very best directors are capable of expressing emotions with mere images and nothing else. This amateur director aimed to high and utterly failed at making something worth watching.

The Cathedral had very poor direction, boring narration, amateur writing and too many dead scenes (stills of mundane things) that did not carry the story forward. I found this film very hard to watch, so I tried skipping ahead and did not find anything new. The Cathedral had very poor direction, boring narration, amateur writing and too many dead scenes (stills of mundane things) that did not carry the story forward. I found this film very hard to watch, so I tried skipping ahead and did not find anything new. The Cathedral had very poor direction, boring narration, amateur writing and too many dead scenes (stills of mundane things) that did not carry the story forward. I found this film very hard to watch, so I tried skipping ahead and did not find anything new.

Originally Premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in the NEXT Selection.

"The Cathedral" is about during the late '80s and early '90s, the Damrosch family's only child, Jesse, watches his family's quiet rise and fall. This is the Third Feature film from Ricky D'Ambrose and while I am not an fan of Avant-garde style of filmmaking, D'Ambrose approach on melodrama and family surprised did work on me.

The film explores themes of growing up, family dysfunctional, and time as the direction really helps to build up time and growth. D'Ambrose is able to take a unique style of both narrative and somewhat documentary feeling about a family story which is based loosely from D'Ambrose's life. There are many uses of newsreels of live footages from famous events to add to context of time and changes to express the films exploration of the character's growing up years and it really worked out.

The performances from the cast are all pretty good although certain performances felt wooden, the sound design is good and the dialogue is pretty realistic and nature as it feels like a real life conversation. The pacing is one of the weaker elements as it does drag a little and as I mentioned, because some performances are wooden, it did felt a little messy when the writing and tone plays together. But it didn't bother me too much.

Overall, it's an interesting take about a simple family melodrama that worked with me. I don't recommend to everyone since it's not a popcorn kind of film and mainly for art house lovers. But if you are interested. Check it out

Rating: B+