Truth be told. Hollywood hasnt come out with a sizeably good movie for a long instant. The last good, completely solid motion pictures in the last decade we are films like Braveheart, American Beauty and Saving Private Ryan. Unfortunately, the rest of the films that we are offered to us movie fans always found a certain way to fall short of perfection.

In recent years, there were films such as Lord of the Rings that relied heavily on special effects and the already sizeably successful fan base that the novels generated. Crash was an independent film that almost made it to the classics category, but the lewd essence and "rough around the edges" quality of the filmmaking cut its chances in half.

Quentin Tarantino was not able to duplicate his masterpiece tour-de-force Pulp Fiction with his following tries. Jackie Brown was too talky and it lost its audiences attention after the first 10 minutes and Kill Bill was the exact opposite and could never be taken as a serious cinematic work.

Sixth Sense was an innovation in the world of cinema but it didnt have enough solidity through out its whole body to complement the grand conclusion. The Usual Suspects had the same situation by having a powerful ending but nothing so impressive leading up to it.

How about all those comic book adaptations? It seems like filmmakers these days make films to build lots of money and there is really no drive toward creativity and grasping risks. One of the films that was recently nominated for the Oscars was Lost in Translation - which although so small managed to stand on its own too feet. It was a breeze of fresh air and it didnt feel like two hours; it felt like a casual and satisfying conversation with a person across the dinner table.

Machiavelli Hangman achieved that magic even though it was also swimming in the same low-budget waters as Lost in Translation. When there is so much at stake, there seems to be an awkward sense of restriction placed on how far the film may take you. The high budget and production values place that limitation on risk and spontaneity and it doesnt leave the story any room for breathing.

Napoleon Dynamite was made just like Machiavelli Hangman (http://www.hangmanmovie.com), on a thread-thin budget but it felt real and thats the reason for its tremendous success. The irony is that no matter how many of these "real" movies prove successful at the box-office, studios continue to contruct motion pictures that depend mainly on special effects and visuals.

Learn from the amateurs. Focus on story.