The Stream: Movie filming and sound quality could be better

The Big Screen: Good twist and a hilarious knockout scene

The Final Bill: Low budget flick that delivers a nice twist

– S2S: Movie Review
Director: Herschel Grangent, Jr.
Writers: Briana Cole
Stars: Jimez Alexander, Briana Cole, Candice Jones, Jason Harmon
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 1 hour
Production Companies: Dame Dash Studios, Brenaissance: A Briana Cole Enterprise, Sigma Square Media
Platform: Fox Soul
https://www.pseudothemovie.com/
https://foxsoul.tv/pseudo/

*”Good”, bad movie alarm rings* Welcome back, Streamers. This week we were graced to have a new movie fall into our lap. That’s a Fall from Grace pun there, but I digress. I know what you’re thinking, “What movie is Stream to Big Screen even talking about?” I mention A Fall from Grace because it sits at the pantheon of “Good” bad movies. This week we watched Pseudo. No, not the Pseudo that just came to HBO MAX. This Pseudo is linked to the new streaming network Fox Soul. Yes, I’d never heard of Fox Soul until we were approached about this movie. Again, I hadn’t heard of this movie either; but, when someone gives you lemons, make lemonade. Well, in this case, watch lemonade be made? I don’t know the correct saying for this, but you know what I mean.

Pseudo is about an emotionally struggling attorney, (sidenote: didn’t get this occupation from viewing), Malcolm, who is searching for love on the dating apps. Dealing with the loss of his mother, Malcolm can’t tell if his date, Maya, is the girl of his dreams or just a delusion. We follow Malcolm as he’s blinded by love and things are falling apart around him. What’s real and what’s not. Let’s find out.

Now, you know I love a “good” bad movie. I actively seek them out to watch a lot but rarely do we review them because they are for entertainment value only. Here, I assumed I was watching Pseudo thinking this was for HBO Max. Once I saw the trailer (watch below), I knew I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. So, let’s get to the real. Pseudo is a bad movie. No ifs, ands or buts about it. The movie is poorly produced, acted, recorded, edited and etc. But that’s not the point here! Soak up the absurdity, drama and the crazy behavior. On a typical day, this movie is not worth watching at all BUT here at Stream to Big Screen we think all movies have some value, no matter how miniscule. Sometimes we just have to sit back and enjoy the subtle things in life and not take things so seriously. Here in lies a “good” bad movie.

Yes, Pseudo is bad but when you squint passed the shaky cams, poor sound quality, over the top and underwhelming acting, you’ll see the diamond in the rough. As originality goes, Pseudo hasn’t recreated the wheel, but it did add a bell or whistle. The writing of the movie may be “sometimesy”, but there is a solid idea behind the storyline (even though it took forever to get through). The flick does have moments of suspense and at times I could really feel the main character Jimez Alexander’s pain as Malcolm. I’ll even go as far as saying, Maya, played by Briana Cole, wasn’t bad either. They seemed to have some chemistry going on there… I guess. Actually, I’ll rephrase. Ms. Cole did her thing from writing to acting as the love interest. She had my guy Malcolm not knowing what was up from down in this flick. I’ve noticed that she’s produced and/or written a couple other films, so I’d definitely tell you all to support.

The main positive of the movie was, in fact, that the twist of the movie actually kind of hits hard. I almost dare say it’s worth seeing, in a vacuum. I’d caution thinking about the actual set up of it because it kind of falls apart with deep thought but that’s not what this movie is for! I mean yes you have to chug along through the whole movie to get to the last 5 minutes for the twist, but I’d actually admit it was worth it. The only other moment worth watching is a hilarious solo dinner and knockout scene that occurs midway through the movie and I couldn’t stop laughing at it. The screenplay has some meat to it but the execution was just a bit off. I can’t tell if this was a lack of funding, lack of acting experience, lack of direction/editing or some combination of them all. I was still able to see where the filmmakers were trying to go with this one. Pseudo needs to be on a streaming channel like this for free, like a Tubi. Dame Dash Studios, you need to put more money into the things you get behind…. shame. But, we have to support our smalltime filmmakers and producers, even if they are Sigmas.

Let’s cut to the chase. Pseudo is one of those bottom of the barrel flicks that you have to go searching out for. Everything about the movie screams fledgling quality. Nevertheless, the movie has moments that actually are enjoyable and suspenseful. Now, I will not tell you to go seek out this movie by any stretch of the means, but if you’re bored and struggling to find something to watch, or if someone holds you hostage and the only way to survive is to watch this movie, this single popped kernel is here for your viewing pleasure. You’ve been warned the film is not devoid of entertainment value but you also can’t take it too seriously. Sit back and enjoy it for what it is.