ThiefHott Too much of everything

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

jeffroutine This played Sundance I think last year. It's crazy. It's like a not-at-all creepy David Lynch. It's very hard to explain. But you have a writer of an autobiographical book, and the book is being adapted into a movie. The film follows the author, the actor playing the author, the filmmaker making the movie, and also the author of the REAL book/actual director of the movie, JJ Lask.If you think Charlie Kaufman is meta, then you haven't even scratched the surface of On The Road With Judas. There are some of my favorite actors in the film too - Kevin Corrigan, Aaron Ruell (from Napoleon Dynamite), and that guy from American Pie Eddie Kaye Thomas is in it too. It's a real mindfuck of a movie - it's kind of like the movie version of a really hard sudoku problem, but really rewarding when it all comes together.And unlike a lot of other films that are about themselves - it never sacrifices human emotion for the sake of it's cleverness. At it's very core is an honest love story, that is very well drawn.

clanepatterson On The Road With Judas was a gem of a film, using an interesting device of stories within stories, of a book's characters, the screen version characters, the writer's vision, all looped together around a talk show host's coverage of the writer and his works. To really enjoy this unusual method of storytelling, relax and wait for it to start making sense—it will, if you pay attention—all the way to the end.This unique story centers on two boys in high school learning thievery for fun, and then as adults perfecting techniques and becoming thieves as an avocation to supplement their entrepreneurial business. Their business crew is clever and hardworking. The ensemble cast played well together, lead by Aaron Ruell and JJ Lask himself. Judas is small and smart, his best friend tall and more noticeable, which lands him in prison, "temporarily". Lask adds in a girl for a peek at how socially numb Judas reacts, to mix things up.The entire film worked, on many levels, including the acting, cinematography and editing. JJ Lask, Writer/Director of this film adaptation of his 2002 novel, whipped up a fascinating and elegantly fashioned bit of intellectual explorations. Quite witty and relevant. Ben Starkman, a lifelong friend of Lask's and fellow commercial editor of award winning commercials, did a fantastic job of lensing this complex, location-rich and day/night filming endeavor. Aaron Ruell adroitly delivers an intriguing Judas. I hope that this will come to a local art house so you can catch it. Otherwise, buy it or rent it on Netflix...Lask's original work is definitely a great addition to any discerning film collector's library.

erin s. This is not one of my twenty-seven favorite films, but it really is worth the watch.Having-a-plot-line wise, "On the Road with Judas" is a bit lacking, but it is cohesive with the way it was made and was intended to be. See, instead of the basic book-to-movie adaptation, the film suggests that the book (written by writer/director J.J. Lask) has already been made into a movie, and a lot of the footage is interviews with the "actors" in the "movie," as well as the "real" people whom the book was "based on". A little confusing, but it works.The "double-life" description really doesn't do the film justice.What was really interesting was the director Q&As afterward (I saw it as SIFF), for it ends up that J.J. Lask (who played the interviewer in the movie) had each of the actors read his book, and then he interviewed them, in character, improv-style. The rest of the movie was written afterward, based on what they said in the interviews.Also, Aaron Ruell is just adorable.

minimusmaximus206 I've been flying a lot lately, which means I've been watching a lot of saccharine movies or action flicks where censors have cut out the compelling bits. Everyone of them ends with a clear good guys/good girls get what they want (or at least get revenge) ending. Frankly, I'm sick of it.So, it was refreshing to see JJ Lask's film On the Road with Judas, a film that squishes time and the viewer's perception of reality. What extrudes are overlapping story lines that meet on a promotional interview of the film-- the "real" characters interact with the "actor" versions of themselves in a cheesy talk show. The story clips pieces from the "real" past together with the movie---so don't be surprised when you find yourself thinking, "But, uh, I thought he was..." I feel like if I say much more about the plot, I'll give a "spoiler," though, I'm not sure if even *I* know what the spoiler is.Look, I don't live in LA, and I'm not obsessed with IMDb like the folks I met recently in LA, so maybe this review won't help you judge why this movie is worth trekking to the next film festival or tiny showing it is at. All I can say is that I really enjoyed the movie--and I loved how people were normal, life was complex, and how a sense of low-key humor slithered it's way through the film. Take a chance and see it.*This movie was viewed at SIFF, the Seattle International Film Festival (North America's largest film festival), at the Northwest Film Forum.