Premise:
David, a widower, is working himself to death. Late nights doing paperwork and running on fumes is normal. Bills are piling up by the week and foreclosure looms on the horizon. Blaming God for his wife's death, he ends his relationship with the church.
Steven, the remaining Christian of the household, has been watching his father’s unhealthy lifestyle with great concern. With help from his grandpa and best friend Maggie, Steven reaches out to his father in any way he can.
Despite his grieving and worsening financial problems, David begins seeking an answer to the question haunting him since his wife's death...WHY?
STANDING FIRM is a story of suffering, God's purpose in it, and being joyful despite it.
Review:
After viewing the trailer of Standing Firm on Facebook, I was intrigued about the story behind this movie. In my investigations, I determined this project is the first independent one ever from Kyle Prohaska. Not only is it an independent film…. It is an independent Christian film. I must confess that I love watching independent movies most of the time and always hope that Christian documentaries and feature films are interesting and not over done. What is over done? Being to preachy, showing you’re desperate to finish the story, script or how the directing can look and sound bad. Independent companies and directors have low budgets for their film but can still look great like typical big motion pictures. Some examples of low budget Christian films that looked great and have a good story are Flywheel, The Perfect Stranger, The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry and Dangerous Calling.
Standing Firm is the story about being lost and the hopes of getting found by someone or something. I was stunned that a first film endeavor by a director was a feature film. A feature film is anything over one hour which is amazing. Most first time directors are lucky to get a good 20 to 30 minutes documentary movie to look great. This was great for the whole 81 minutes.
As I watched Mr. Prohaska’s work unfold on the screen, I was impressed by his attention to detail and development with his characters and a matured innocence with the camera. The script that he also co-wrote with Kevin Michael was captivating and believable. Rob Reisman (David Corwin) was excellent and heart wrenching to witness on screen. For someone with no acting experience before, Mr. Reisman looked like a semi-professional to me. I hope that I see him acting again in the future.
When David and his son Steven are dealt with a catastrophic blow to their family and way of life, the unfolding story shows what God can do in loss of identity and love through death. The power of prayer, hope, faith, love and willingness to live and move on made Standing Firm a movie library buy for me. The moving and believable examples of Christianity and God shown I hope will cause others to buy and watch it over and over for years to come. It is truly a death to grave and rebirth from ashes to beauty with God’s guidance.
I don’t know what Mr. Prohaska’s future holds for him but I hope he does a feature film again when God allows because I see great potential for him. I hope his name will be mentioned one day as a great director with the likes of Rich Christiano, Alex Kendrick, Dallas Jenkins and producer Ralph Winter to name a few. They also make excellent Christian films.
I give this movie 5 out of 5 stars.
Be blessed!
Bradley
