Faults

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Riley Stearns directs. Michael Ragen behind the camera. Heather McIntosh scores. Sarah Beth Shapiro cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 190 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
• 2Released 12 years ago.
• 3Directed by Riley Stearns, shot by Michael Ragen. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 4Original score by Heather McIntosh. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 5Editor Sarah Beth Shapiro shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 6Leland Orser and Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Chris Ellis carry the top of the cast.
• 7Marketing tagline: "Sects, cults, and mind control.".
• 8IMDB entry: tt3021360 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 9Classified under 13 themes, including "mind control", "kidnapping", "blackout", "dark comedy".

The technical file

Cinematography

Michael Ragen

Original score

Heather McIntosh

Editing

Sarah Beth Shapiro

Production design

James Connelly

Costume design

Emily Batson

Makeup / hair

Galaxy San Juan

Stunt coordinator

Clayton J. Barber

Runtime

90 min · 1h 30m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Original language

EN

IMDB

Faults (2014) ↗

Also by

Riley Stearns

• 
  Tower Prep

  2010 · ★ 7.7
• 
  Magnificat

  2011 · ★ 6.7
• 
  The Art of Self-Defense

  2019 · ★ 6.6
• 
  The Vince Staples Show

  2024 · ★ 6.6
• 
  Dual

  2022 · ★ 6.0
• 
  Casque

  2012 · ★ 5.8

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Faults Official Trailer 1 (2015) - Mary Elizabeth Winstead Movie HD

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Frank Ochieng2015-10-11

  Writer-director Riley Stearns masterfully concocts the sinister dramedy ‘Faults’ that registers with a bizarre blend of terror and off-the-cuff cheekiness. Stearns’s caustic yet cockeyed vision into the exploration of cults and mind-control methods is gloriously wacky and makes for one of the most unique psychological dramas to register with forthright nerve within recent years. The peculiar appeal found in ‘Faults’ rests on the beleaguered shoulders of the film’s desperate and dysfunctional lead protagonist Ansel Roth (played with harried brilliance by Leland Orser), a one-time notable authority on cult activities. However, in the aftermath of some success comes the lean times when this so-called shifty deprogramming expert, now in the dumps financially and otherwise, needs to rise to the challenge and ironically escape his own self-inflicting trance. Hence, ‘Faults’ roams into tricky territory and manages to juggle the sensitive themes of psyche imprisonment with spirited, naughty ribaldry. Deliciously dark and twisted, ‘Faults’ resonates because of Stearns’s off-key fascination with his shady characters and the compromising predicaments that ensue. As the ringleader of the crazy-minded goings-on, Orser’s Roth is seriously flawed and this serves as the devilish foundation for Stearns’s chaotic universe of unstructured disillusionment. The easy thing to do is automatically label ‘Faults’ Dr. Ansel Roth as a down-and-out loser with questionable ethics. Sure, his credentials are somewhat boast-worthy in that he has authored a book on the subject matter regarding his expertise in the un-brainwashing of cult victims as manipulated prey. Still, the pitiful Roth is in a precarious pickle and the only way he can redeem his dire circumstances is return to what he does best regarding his trade as a renowned psychologist. Thankfully, Roth does get that golden opportunity when an older middle-aged couple requests his services in retrieving their jeopardised daughter Claire (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’) from the cult faction known as Faults. For the concerned parents of the missing Claire, there is a remote sense of hope for Roth to reclaim his own disruptive existence. After all, the hapless soul needs something to overcome his personalised demons. Unfortunately, Roth fell into a tailspin in the aftermath of a former patient’s suicide during his deprogramming watch. So now this justified Roth’s jerk-like tendencies and pauper way of living. The recounting of Roth’s sad ‘way of life’ includes living out of his broken-down vehicle, mooching breakfast from an already used food voucher at a cheap motel restaurant or forcing his book on disinterested parties at scarcely attended hotel seminars. With eating packets of ketchup as a substitute meal or getting a beating at one of his hosted sessions, it appears that Ansel Roth cannot get a decent break. Naturally, coming to the aid of the abducted Claire on behalf of her worried folks is a golden given for the weasel Roth. He can both exploit the couple’s emotional emergency for financial gain and embrace a semblance of redemption and legitimacy as the prominent professional mind-bending problem solver he once was revered in his field. Besides, his paid assignment to rescue the imperiled Claire depends on his own mortality. It is revealed that Roth owes some serious loot to his ex-manager (Jon Gries from ‘Taken’ and ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ fame) and in the process has to avoid the shakedown from one of his enforcing goons (Lance Riddick) looking to collect big time. The notable revelation in ‘Faults’ stems from the complicated consciousness of both Orser and Winstead as the tandem trapped in an anguished grip of psychological hostility. Orser’s Ansel Roth is the broken man at the helm of self-destruction and despair. Stearns’s ironic presentation of a psyche ‘fixer’ that requires his own brand of mental repairing is oddly compelling and comical in off-kilter fashion. Orser conveys Roth as a walking disaster area whose arrogance and misguided morality shrewdly begs for some sense of sympathy and remorse. He is the main key to the orchestrated mind-numbing madness that Stearns injects into this crafty, cockeyed caper. Winstead’s Claire is transfixing as the brainwashed beauty battling the scars of bleakness. She is convincingly haunting despite her sorority girl freshness look. The supporting players in the aforementioned Gries and Riddick as well as other participants in Stearns’s concentrated center of creepiness skillfully balance the wickedness and wit felt so piercingly realized. ‘Faults’ is a resourceful black comedy that works effectively and never strays away from its pedigree of outrageous misfortune. This is one psychological character study that demonstrates its motivation for unconventional strife with devilish conviction. The inspired insane-induced performances from the film’s detached duo of Orser’s Dr. Ansel Roth and Winstead’s Claire is proof enough to not find any ounce of perceived Faults with Stearns’s risque roller-coaster on-screen examination of violated distraught boundaries. Faults (2014) Screen Media Films 1 hr. 30 mins. Starring: Leland Orser, Mary Elzabeth Winstead, Jon Gries, Lance Riddick, Chris Ellis and Beth Grant Written and Directed by: Riley Stearns MPAA Rating: NR Genre: Psychological Drama/Cults and Deprogramming Caper Critic’s rating: * stars (out of 4 stars)

  Read full review ↓
• Reno2016-08-04
  ★ 6/10

  What we're, won't be the same at the end of the level. The film had more hidden facts than one gets in his casual viewing. If you were really focused, you would start to dig for some answers. The opening of the film was very smooth in a comedic sense. But that's not how the entire film going to be. When the story's purpose begins to roll, with an unexpected event the narration moves to a single location for almost the rest of the film with the limited cast. So it is where our guessing game commence. I must agree the writing was a bit cleverer than I projected. The film characters were not so complicated, but towards the end it looked like unavoidably becomes that way. At first, it promises to be a good entertainer and then turns to be smarter with the story development, but in a low key. The film does not say anything about its timeline, but seems it was in the 70s that inspired by the real deprogramming. I did not get the last 10-15 minutes of the film, but you know by guessing and visiting various film discussion forums on the net about what others thought about it gave more perspectives. But we still won't reach anywhere near what the writer intended to tell all of us. Compared to the opening, the end was totally a different contrast. In fact feels turned to be another genre and theme. So you would end watching it with the possibilities of like this and that. That means not all the viewers end up happy for what they just saw. Definitely it is for a certain kind of people, including for those has no intention of any expectations from the film. 6/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Snoot Entertainment

  US

Key crew

• Costume DesignEmily Batson
• CastingNicole Daniels
• ProducerKeith Calder
• Co-ProducerRoxanne Benjamin
• EditorSarah Beth Shapiro
• Executive ProducerBrian Joe
• Production DesignJames Connelly
• Co-ProducerChris Harding
• CastingCourtney Bright
• ProducerMary Elizabeth Winstead
• Stunt CoordinatorClayton J. Barber
• Stunt CoordinatorMark Chadwick
• Stunt CoordinatorTim Connolly
• Set DecorationLeah Mann
• Makeup Department HeadGalaxy San Juan
• Key Makeup ArtistChelsea Orduno

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• mind control
• kidnapping
• blackout
• dark comedy
• cult
• money
• author
• brainwashing
• lecture
• threat
• voyeurism
• motel room
• personal crisis

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical2014-03-06