Survival Skills

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Survival Skills

2020

1h 24m

Comedy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

88%

Tomatometer

24 Reviews

56%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

A seemingly perfect policeman lands in over his head when he tries to resolve a case of domestic violence.

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Critics Consensus

Led by a strong starring performance from Vayu O'Donnell, Survival Skills takes a singularly strange -- but mostly satisfying -- look at law enforcement.

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Randy Myers

San Jose Mercury News

A head trip that shoots off into unexpected and topical directions.

Rated: 3.5/4

Dec 4, 2020

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Mark Hanson

Slant Magazine

Survival Skills feels like something you'd stumble upon on Adult Swim circa 2014, sandwiched between Too Many Cooks and reruns of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!

Rated: 2.5/4

Nov 29, 2020

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Richard Whittaker

Austin Chronicle

None of this would work without a stunning and nuanced performance by O'Donnell.

Rated: 3/5

Nov 10, 2020

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C.H. Newell

Father Son Holy Gore

Survival Skills is a story about how even a so-called ‘good cop’ can’t do the right thing when they want to because the system was never designed to work for the most vulnerable in the first place.

Rated: 3.5/5

Nov 22, 2022

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Steven Warner

In Review Online

Armstrong has an ace up his sleeve in the film's final ten minutes, removing a lot of the inherent, palate-deadening bitterness in the process.

Jun 5, 2021

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Jonathan DeHaan

Nightmare on Film Street

Quinn Armstrong perfectly recreates the feeling of an over-produced (half-baked) instructional video that thinks the world's complicated problems are as simple as programming a Toshiba VCR

Rated: 9/10

Mar 1, 2021

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dave d

'Survival Skills' is one of the most self-aware films I've ever seen, but it was the lack of comedic heft and tonal changes that make this sloppy and forgettable. For a film that is trying so hard to be unique, you'd think writer and director Quinn Armstrong would have stayed in the mockumentary lane as opposed to the family drama one. Fantastic to see Stacy Keach as the Narrator who is voicing an 80s cop training film. The movie is supposed to feel and look like it's fresh out of the late 80s and it succeeds with that, but the novel concept becomes annoying as the film meanders. The style is original, but gets old fast and drags on. When actors are talking about what role they are playing it becomes nails on a chalkboard. Final Score: 3.8/10

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

A lot more style over substance in this movie 3.3

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

12/11/20

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Audience Member

Truly absurd but tragic in its own way, telling a story that doesn´t go the direction of silly jokes, but a rather confronting story about abuse, regret and dealing with the issues of the job.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

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Quinn Armstrong

Director

Vayu O'Donnell

Jim Williams

Ericka Kreutz

Allison Lohmann

Emily Chisholm

Leah Jenning

Stacy Keach

The Narrator

Spencer Garrett

The Chief

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Synopsis

A seemingly perfect policeman lands in over his head when he tries to resolve a case of domestic violence.

Director: Quinn Armstrong
Producer: Michael Orion Downing, Colin West
Screenwriter: Quinn Armstrong
Distributor: Cranked Up Films
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 13, 2020, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 4, 2020
Runtime: 1h 24m

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