"The Frame" follows the characters of Alex and Sam. Alex is a man who works for the cartel and tries to escape his life of crime. Sam is an ambulance paramedic who is struggling with her past and is trying to live a normal, healthy life. Somehow these two characters lives collide in a complicated and fantasy like way that makes us the audience question what's real and what's fiction. "The Frame" is directed by Jamin Winans who also brought us the movie "Ink" (2009), which I have not seen. "The Frame" is one of the most original films I've seen along with many other films I've seen. The film starts as a crime drama but turns into a psychological thriller, which I really like. The leap from one genre to the next was handled so well by Winans, and it was a risk that was truly worth taking.

The performances by David Carranza, and Tiffany Mualem (Alex and Sam) were good to say the least. The performances weren't groundbreaking or Oscar worthy, but they did project the story and made me very invested in the film and what was going to happen to these two characters. The plot of the film is complicated, I wouldn't say it's David Lynch complicated but I would say that your brain has to be turned on when watching the film.

A couple of flaws I had with the film was some of the acting. At times I felt that the performances got overly cheesy or dramatic. And the other flaw I had with the film was that I felt it took itself a little too seriously. I do understand why it did but I just felt that the film could've been a little more loose and didn't have to make every scene so dramatic.

**SPOILERS** **SPOILERS** **SPOILERS** **SPOILERS** **SPOILERS**

If you're still reading this then you obviously saw the film. That's my last warning.

Now I'm just going to put it out there right away, the character of Sam is imagining everything that has to do with the character of Alex. Alex is nothing but Sam's imagination. Sam is trying to escape her past and live in the present so she can move forward in the future. By doing this she sees her therapist. Her therapist tells her that she's been doing a good job at "distracting" herself and "watching the television". TV plays a big role in the film. Obviously Sam is going through a lot of stress in her life and is possibly psychologically ill, which causes her to see the television show "Thieves AND Saints" which stars Alex as himself. Like her therapist said before, Alex is a "distraction" for Sam, which is why she's the only person who can see this show. Alex is a reflection of Sam.

When Alex first sees Sam on his television they both do the same movements and imitate one another. This happens with every time they see each other. To prove that Sam is imagining all of this, there's a scene in the film where she calls the writers of the television show "Thieves AND Saints". When she's forwarded to the writers all she hears is her voice over the phone saying exactly what she's saying. This proves that Alex's destiny and story is all because of Sam, and she can change it.

When the two characters try to meet in person on the bridge they both sit at the exact same spot. While this is happening Sam's therapist just so happens to be there and sits next to her. And at the same time Alex's boss just so happens to be there and sits next to him. This is Sam imagining herself as Alex, and imagining that her therapist is Alex's boss. Whenever the two characters try to meet in public they can never find each other because one lives in the physical world while the other lives inside someone's head.

The Mechanic very much resembles the character of the cowboy in "Mulholland Dr." (2001). The Mechanic resembles death or the devil. I'm not exactly sure what impact he had on the film but he added an extra layer of substance to this already complicated story.

The end of the film is pretty much Sam getting over her psychosis. The last thirty minutes of the film is Sam imagining all these crazy things happening. I personally think she was just sitting on her couch the entire time while all these insane things started to unfold. Just to put it out there Sam did not get hit by the car and is not dead. At the end when Alex and Sam finally come in contact with one another it symbolizes Sam coming to terms with her past and able to face the future. Both Alex and Sam are facing their past and are having a difficult time facing the future. The character of Alex has his violin of when he was a child. The last time Alex remembers having the violin is when his parents were killed in front of him. The violin is a metaphor or a symbol for Alex's past which he has such a hard time coming to terms with. During the climax of the film when Alex plays the violin he is coming to terms with his past. This causes Sam to come to terms with her past as well because Alex and Sam are the same person it's just that Sam is in control of how she will face her past.

This is simply my interpretation of the film so whatever I said may not mean jack to you. I do think "The Frame" is a film that should have more recognition. So go see it if you haven't already. Even though if you didn't watch the film and are still reading this then you just spoiled the movie for yourself.

If he can do this with a minimal budget, what can he do with big bucks..? But then would Hollywood producers force their mindless pap on him..?

Hard to say, but I am way impressed..! If you forget the religious aspect and simply consider it all as consciousness projection it all makes pretty good sense.. Considering how much video, movies, etc I watch it would not be a surprise to me to have a reflective manifestation like this.. haha Really solid acting by the main cast.. Really good directing with impeccable timing.. Fluid cinematography and nothing shoved in your face.. Even the gunplay was realistic and within the bounds of logic.. Like a few other movies about consciousness and perspective this is basically a simple Inception.. Everything is relative, even how we perceive the meaning of this play.. Well done everyone involved in this and thank you for putting something smart out there and allowing the audience to receive something positive amongst the typical horror and angst Hollywood cranks out these days.. ?

*Spoilers intentionally vague*

I first saw this film at a pre-release screening in the filmmakers Jamin and Kiowa Winans' hometown of Denver, and I could not recommend it more highly. (Note: I have no personal connection to the Winans, and had never met them before the screening.)

As an inveterate film junkie, I'm tempted to place this comparatively low-budget indie venture in the same class as some of the greatest modern science fiction films I've seen, like Blade Runner and Dark City. Like them, it tackles timeless, universal themes with clever allegorical relish - not to mention packs an emotional wallop. In addition, the deft cinematography and effects hold up against the mega-million-dollar blockbusters Hollywood has gotten us all used to. It's a work of art and a labor of love. And like many of the best works of art, it invites viewers to examine their own unconscious assumptions about reality, and even, perhaps, to approach their own lives with greater courage.

Obviously "frame" is a filmmaking term...but for those not familiar with this particular definition of the word, within the fields of social and cognitive science (as well as linguistics), a frame is also a way of mentally structuring experiential input in a coherent way, of giving it a narrative. The way we "frame" any given situation can determine whether we're depressed, angry, or happy about it, as well as dictate what choices we make and actions we take. In short: we believe the stories we tell ourselves. "The mind," as John Milton wrote centuries ago, "is its own place, and in itself can make a heav'n of hell, and a hell of heav'n." This is the concept, I believe, at the heart of THE FRAME. The movie asks: how much control do we really have over our stories? And what if we could burn the manuscript?

Filmed in Denver, THE FRAME takes place in the fictional city of Los Perditus (Latin for The Lost) in a state called Animas (Latin for Souls, as well as Jung's word for the archetype of the unconscious feminine in men). The protagonists Alex and Sam (I suspect their gender-neutral names are no accident) are played with fierce conviction by relative unknowns David Carranza and Tiffany Mualem, talented young actors who are that unassuming sort of gorgeous that grows on you. You fall in love with them as they're falling in love with each other.

Alex in particular seems lost, in an all-male underworld of crime, keeping his old resentments alive, rationing his tenderness, suspicious of Sam. This is a man who needs his anima. He can't stand to listen to beautiful music…but he likes listening to Sam sing.

I expect that religious types will claim some kind of overtly religious message in the film - certainly some thorny theological questions are raised - but I'm not convinced that the concepts of God or the Devil as presented here (or for that matter the shady Mechanic, played with restrained menace by Christopher Soren Kelly in a triple role) reflect much more than Alex's own rather traditional and Catholic frame of reference regarding the tension between nihilism and hope, between creating beauty and succumbing to despair. (If the film were intended as some kind of simplistic Christian fable, I'd actually be sorely disappointed. It'd be a bit like turning the cosmos into a cops-and-robbers show.) But is he truly trapped in a narrative not of his own making?

Sam refers to these opposing dark and light elements as chaos and miracle. The inky goo that seeps insidiously into the landscape, blotting out objects in its path, seems representative of the former, while the extraordinary meeting of the two protagonists - and the metaphor that might represent - is clearly the latter. But even then, Sam is still the only approximation of a deus ex machina in obvious evidence; she alters the fates of others daily in her job as an EMT, and refuses to accept a fatalistic script. Her story is literally about hope. The most powerful beings in this universe still appear to be the humans...whether or not they know it.

If anything, I think it may be the New Agey quantum-mysticism crowd who walk away most justifiably satisfied with the film when the credits roll; in the end, as it turns out, it really is all about the vibrations.

But even if you're just an irreligious humanities sap like me who believes in the power of art, beauty, and human love to effect paradigmatic and even cataclysmic change, go see this film. It will move and hearten you. And maybe even inspire you to change your story.