Broken Star (2018) User Reviews

It doesn't do what it sets out to do and it doesn't finish what it starts to do

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 5 January 2019]

Hollywood star Markey Marlowe (Analeigh Tipton) is floundering. Her career is fading. She's threatened with real jail time. With an ankle monitor, she checks into an isolated rental place away from the paparazzi for the 30 days probation. The reclusive owner Daryl (Tyler Labine) lives next door in the converted house.

This is mostly the lead actors and I like them both. I don't mind the expected B-movie plot. The lower rating confused me a little until I watched the movie. It takes an unconventional sharp turn about the midway point. It's an awkward questionable turn. The premise is she wants her fame back no matter the cost. That's not what happens. This turns into revenge but the reason is a little muddled. I also don't like leaving the ending ambiguous. It doesn't do what it sets out to do and it also doesn't finish what it starts to do. The movie takes a weird turn and then pulls off on the side of the road.

Just stopped....

[caleb1868 · 5/10 · 25 June 2019]

I was loving this movie. It has a great, eerie feel to it. The characters are really well defined. It has a great build up and carries that through out, but the it JUST STOPS. There's a difference between the wish of a character and just stopping and rolling credits. I feel cheated. I was really enjoying this and love Tyler Labine. I feel cheated.

Punch his teeth in.

[nogodnomasters · 3/10 · 12 August 2018]

Marky Marlo (Analeigh Tipton) is a Hollywood star out of control. She assaulted her mother and was found with drugs. She was awarded house arrest in a rented home owned by a major fan, Daryl (Tyler Labine). Daryl would do anything for Marky.

The film had a lot of Marky boring first person narrative about life. Daryl should have been more creepy and less shy. Pretty much a waste of time. A little voyeurism.

Guide: No f-word, sex, or nudity.

It lost me not even halfway through...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 7 August 2018]

When I sat down to watch "Broken Star" I didn't even know about the movie, nor had I heard about it. I was given the chance to watch it, and decided to do so, because I was under the impression that it was going to be a horror movie, and it also had Tyler Labine in it, which was a plus for me.

Right, well I managed to endure 35 minutes of this meaningless and equally pointless endeavor that is known as "Broken Star". Wow, just wow. This movie totally failed to enthrall me and provided no form of entertainment in any possible way.

The characters in the movie were one-dimensional cardboard cut outs and had little or no function when they milled about doing pointless things on the screen. And it didn't really help that the actors and actresses had next to nothing to work with in terms of being able to bring the characters to life on the screen.

The storyline was horribly boring and I was losing interest already 10 minutes into the movie. But I managed to stick with it, but had to toss in the towel and give up from sheer and utter boredom after 35 minutes into it.

I have absolutely no interest in returning to finish this movie, and not even Tyler Labine could manage to lift up this movie in any way, as he was restrained in every aspect by a lousy script, horrible storyline and so forth.

waste of time!

[haroot_azarian · 1/10 · 14 May 2019]

Folks don't bother with this one. It is a total waste of time. It's just about a spoilt brat starlet turned sadistic psycho assistant killer. big thumbs down!

Good acting wasted

[zack_gideon · 5/10 · 21 February 2022]

Great acting by Tipton. She's incredible but the plot was so so so so so bad the last 30. The director and writers had a chance at a good movie and instead created a pile of trash. Nice work fellas! You should be ashamed you wasted such an amazing actress.

Pretty bad

[bgar-80932 · 3/10 · 29 October 2019]

I was drinking so I won't say anymore but this movie was pretty bad. I watched it all but I don't have any real thoughts on it.

Im going to watch it twice

[tiffloydtl · 28 March 2019]

I liked it. The ending isnt solid but she states. She doesnt want the ending to be filmed. She wants it to be a mystery. What i want to take notice in is how it looked when he was watching throught the video. The ending it was in a antique style not color. Was it like that the other times. And her image flickered like how they film ghost scenes sometimes. But then again they both could have been filming a movie..going to watch again at some point.

Creepy

[kimbpaul · 5/10 · 10 January 2022]

No sympathy for the lame, spoiled brat lead at the beginning and was debating whether to bail out, when it started getting interesting. I read other reviews and decided to watch a little more. I figured out pretty quickly what was really happening so kept watching to see if I was right. So, here's the thing...the part that's really creepy about the landlord...nah, not gonna tell you. But I still don't like the lead character. She really is a narcissistic witch. Never heard of the actress before but she really nailed the part.

Could have been great if not for the meaningless ending

[aliullah · 6/10 · 24 July 2018]

Under 30 days of house arrest, Markey Marlowe finds herself abandoned by everyone in her life. She finds herself losing herself out of isolation. Her shut in landlord helps her accomplish her dark wishes in his creepy and twisted manner. This movie could have been much better had the ending not been squandered.

Natasha Loring sizzles, Lio Tipton provokes, Tyler Labine is calm and creepy!

[Strider-100 · 4/10 · 20 December 2022]

Lio Tipton plays Markey Marlowe, sort of a Lindsay Lohand kind of actress who feels abandoned by friends, family and everyone, is spoiled rotten, and needs constant attention. Unfortunately for Markey, she has been put in house arrest for 30 days and also wears a tracking device on her ankle. If she can stay clean and sober for 30 days she will go on probation.

To make matters worse, her landlord who lives next door is monitoring her and he is obsessed with Markey. His name is Daryl (Tyler Labine) who has recently lost his grandmother. Daryl was the one who performed a mercy killing on her according to his story.

As weird as each character is, they form a bond and Marlene not only lets Daryl film her and interview her, but also Daryl carries out Marlene's bidding. Marlene wanted revenge on the boyfriend Nick (Joshua Davis) who raped her so she tells Daryl she wants his capped gold tooth with a diamond in it for a gift. No problem, Daryl races out and rips out Nicks tooth and makes a necklace present for Marlene.

Marlene wants revenge on her best actress friend and tells Daryl she wants her best friend Sydney (Natasha Loring) to have all her hair ripped out by hand. No problem, Daryl races out, drugs the drinks of Sydney at a bar, follows her home and captures her and pulls her hair out by hand. Natasha Loring sizzles in her few minutes of screen time.

Marlene then wants to punish her mother and younger sister so she orders Daryl to capture both of them and then cut up the face of her younger sister Jade (Addyson Bell) who is a rising actress to destroy Jade's career and force her mom Kara (Lauren Bowles) to watch her personal meal ticket get cut up.

Then to imitate Marilyn Monroe, she orders Daryl to kill her so she goes out in a blaze of glory. Things get weird here because before Marlene is killed she gets her personal assistant Annie (Monique Coleman) to come over to the house so Marlene can knock her out and give her a haircut. Movie leaves you hanging whether Annie is killed or not.

Then Daryl goes to strangling Marlene, but then the film fades and we see Marlene waking up as if the whole thing is a dream. It is the weirdness of the movie that gets you to watch and I did like how the director Dave Schwep chose not to be graphic but implied things. Example: the hair pulling scene shows some hair being pulled out of Sydney's head but only a couple of clumps and her screaming and then cuts to another scene.

The actors all did a fine job, but the script is what kills the movie. It is not believable or even plausible so it is not realistic at all and hence the low rating.

Disturbing, thought-provoking movie about Hollywood narcissism......

[marioreturns · 10/10 · 9 December 2018]

I found Tipton exceptional and Lebine good as well playing two HIGHLY damaged, even borderline-psychopathic characters engaged in a "nasty, sick perverted," yet strangely moving relationship. (Not that it excuses any of the actions committed by both the characters in the movie---particularly those of Darryl (Lebine)----but you do end up understanding at least partially what why they do some of the things they do).

Now for the ending...

I think one of the reasons many dislike this movie is because of the ending. Way too ambiguous, they say. Too confusing. I say it is believable if you pay attention and think about it after the credits have rolled.

Either A) Markey or Darryl "changed the ending" to start all over again and redefine their relationship-----and not ending up with having anyone tormented/killed(which then would make this psychological thriller take a sharp turn into supernatural territory-----or, B) Markey dreamed the whole thing up, as another reviewer commented. And she's "starting over again" but in a more brave, more positive light, without the initial whiny self-pity and narcissism. (Exemplified by the motto "Be alone but brave" scrawled across her arm at the end).

That is hampered by her discovery that Darryl is stalking her. Will she reject him this time? Probably so.

(On the other hand, it's implied the two of them kiss at the end of the dream, implying some sort of a relationship between both of them. Was it somehow a prophetic dream? Could be....)

This ending is reinforced by the clue that she reawakens and looks in the mirror like she did two other times in the movie and she does so in the nighttime----like she was having intermittent dreams----like all of us have. Her calendar after she wakes up is not filled like it was before, implying she just started living in the house.

Personally to me that is the most believable explanation, but the first also could be possible. Remember, too, that Markey also told her friend near the end that she "controlled" everything, implying either a dream or that she had more of a chance to "rewrite" the ending (supernaturally) than Darryl did.

Maybe she did not want to give in to her sick attraction to Darryl at the end and just kiss him in the dream as it is implied.

Ultimately, there is still room for ambiguity at the end. Will Darryl and Markey somehow (and somewhat improbably) end up together? Will he kill her or just befriend her? What will happen next.

Who knows. LOL.

If anything, this a disturbing and thought-provoking examination of Hollywood narcissistic, empty culture and its effects on broken people's lives and all of us.

10 out of 10.

I enjoyed this but could have been much better

[natcalgary · 6/10 · 22 July 2018]

Acting was great and the story lone kind of came together well. Then close to the end it took a turn and I am still a little confused about how it actually ends,

Dripping with Atmospheric Dread

[sharonkathleenjohnson · 8/10 · 20 September 2018]

I couldn't help but enjoy this chilling glimpse into the psychology of a petty narcissistic vindictive starlet--more than a few real life versions certainly exist--and the folie a deux that she forms with her minion-like landlord. Featuring videos within videos as if cloistered in a claustrophobic hall of mirrors, it fractures the nature of reality, yet never strays too far from reality. The best horror films stay within the realm of the possible. And if it really was all was a dream as the ending seemed to imply, it was a cinematically well-scripted and well-acted dream worthy of Alfred Hitchcock or David Lynch--haunted Hollywoodiana doesn't get any better than this!