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Survival Skills

Play trailer Poster for Survival Skills 2020 1h 24m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist 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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Survival Skills

Survival Skills

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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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Critics Reviews

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Randy Myers San Jose Mercury News 12/04/2020
3.5/4
A head trip that shoots off into unexpected and topical directions. Go to Full Review Mark Hanson Slant Magazine 11/29/2020
2.5/4
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! Go to Full Review Richard Whittaker Austin Chronicle 11/10/2020
3/5
None of this would work without a stunning and nuanced performance by O'Donnell. Go to Full Review C.H. Newell Father Son Holy Gore 11/22/2022
3.5/5
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. Go to Full Review Steven Warner In Review Online 06/05/2021
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. Go to Full Review Jonathan DeHaan Nightmare on Film Street 03/01/2021
9/10
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 Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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dave d @RT34924333 02/11/2022 '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 See more 12/11/2020 A lot more style over substance in this movie 3.3 See more Read all reviews
Survival Skills

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Cast & Crew

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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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Survival Skills

Survival Skills (2020) Survival Skills (2020) View more photos

Movie Info

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