Acting is an illuminating and gently engrossing documentary about 8 actors performing Shakespeare's Macbeth with the guidance of Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, co-artistic directors of Cheek By Jowl, an a theatre company. Director Sophie Fiennes uses a laissez-faire approach sans talking-head interviews, archival footage, or including herself in the film. All she does is simply complex: she merely lets the camera observe Donellan and Ormerod directing their actors for 11 days. The result will make you feel like you've been generously invited to sit and watch an acting class. According to Donnellan and Ormerod, good actors shouldn't be trying hard to find the truth of their role because then they get stuck on impossible to fully answer questions like, "Whose truth is it?" Good performances can occur unexpectedly and can be hard to replicate because it depends on so many factors. Interestingly, when the actors first arrive at the Twyford Mansion in London, they're initially instructed to walk around the room to familiarize themselves with it and to look their fellow actors in the eye.

      Cheek By Jowl embraces humanity as well as the complexities of acting. Similarly, Fiennes recognizes the humanity in the audience by including some breaks to exterior shots every now and then so as not to make them feel exhausted. There are even some other forms of levity, i.e. surprisingly funny moments. Fiennes also trusts the audience's patience because this is a long documentary that moves at a slow pace. However, those patient audience members will be rewarded by an enlightening experience. Anyone who loves Shakespeare, acting or theater will find a lot of insights while watching Acting. It might even change the way they look at Shakespeare, acting and theater. At a running time of 2 hours and 25 minutes, Acting opens at Quad Cinema via Juno Films. It would be an interesting double feature with Looking for Richard and Creating a Character: The Moni Yakim Legacy.

 

       Barnaby (James Corden) and Sally (Jessica Gunning), the estranged children of a famous painter, Julian (Ian McKellen), hire Lori (Michaela Coel), a forger, to finish his incomplete paintings called The Christophers in The Christophers. Director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Ed Solomon have made a meandering, clunky and tonally uneven dramedy with a dull screenplay that's ultimately less than the sum of its parts. A lot had happened in Julian's past that haunts him, but the film barely explores his painful memories which have something to do with his unfinished paintings.  Lori's attempts to forge those paintings lacks suspense despite the potential. It doesn't help that Julian sees right through her bullshit and calls her bluff early on. Their relationship could've been like Harold & Maude or something along those lines, but it never even gets close to that kind of deep connection.

       Julian, like Maude, is bitter, cantankerous, intelligent, blunt and witty while coping with a traumatic past. It's too bad that the screenplay shies away from exploring his heart, mind and soul. McKellen gives a raw, convincingly moving performance that invigorates the film while breathing life into his role and adding gravitas. He's the film's MVP and keeps it moderately engaging. The Christophers would be the inferior B-movie in a double feature with the superior Gods and Monsters, also starring Ian McKellen. At a running time of 1 hour and 40 minutes, The Christophers opens at select theaters nationwide via NEON. 

Number of times I checked my watch: 3




 

       The Lonely Man (Kazunari Ninomiya) gets lost in the hallways of a subway station and gets stuck in an endless loop in Exit 8. His only way out is Exit 8, but to get out of the endless loop, he has to spot anomalies and turn around or go forward if there are no anomalies. He's back to square one if he makes an error. Writer/director Genki Kawamura  and co-writer Kentaro Hirase has made a minimalist psychological horror thriller that's pretentious, exhausting and runs out of steam around the hour mark. They take an interesting concept, based on a video game, and stretch it too thinly. The nameless Lonely Man has a girlfriend (Nana Komatsu) whom he's on the phone with before it loses connection in the hallways of the station. Along the way, he meets mysterious characters who also remain nameless like The Walking Man (Yamato Kochi), The Boy (Naru Asanuma), and The High School Girl (Kotone Hanase).

      Exit 8 tries hard to rise above being a B-movie movie through symbolism, but its use of symbolism is often heavy-handed, i.e. an unsubtle reference to Escher paintings, and its flashbacks are clunky. The instructions of the "game" that The Lonely man gets stuck in are even posted clearly on a wall. Very little gets left for interpretation until the somewhat trippy ending that goes over-the-top and tries to be poignant and provocative, but doesn't quite stick the landing. Instead, it leaves the audience feeling frustrated and scratching their heads. Exit 8 probably would've worked better as a short film or should've stayed a video game. As a feature length film, it overstays its welcome. At a running time of 1 hour and 35 minutes, Exit 8 opens at select theaters nationwide via NEON. 

Number of times I checked my watch: 4

      In Fiume o Morte!, director Igor Bezinović convinces residents of Rijeka, Croatia, to reenact Gabriele D'Annunzio's takeover of their city, formerly known as Fiume, during the beginning WWI. D'Annunzio served as an officer in the Royal Italian Army. What follows is an occasionally illuminating, but often dull and dry documentary that fails to be compelling enough. It's a mildly engaging introduction to a lesser known part of Italian and Croatian history. Unfortunately, Fiume o Morte! never transcends as a documentary. Moreover, the pace moves too slowly and the film lacks scope without exploring its larger themes with much depth that would make it more provocative or timely. At a running time of 1 hour and 52 minutes, Fiume o Morte! opens at Metrograph.

Number of times I checked my watch: 4

      Tara Nichols (Miranda MacDougall) searches for her brother, Matthew, who mysteriously went missing in the Black Bear Forest with his friend, Jordan Reimer, 20 years earlier Hunting Matthew Nichols. She and a documentary filmmaker, Markian Tarasiuk, investigate their disappearance, interview their family members and the police officer who handled the missing persons case. Writer/director Markian Tarasiuk and co-writer Sean Oliver have made a horror "documentary" that doesn't get points for originality, but it's effectively gripping and creepy. Tarasiuk and Oliver begin with a lot of exposition that helps Tara to get a sense of the events that occurred leading up to her brother's disappearance. She makes a very astute observation when she realizes that there hasn't been any footage of Matthew and Jordan while inside the cabin where their camcorder was found. That footage must be on a missing tape that Matthew and Jordan left behind: the tape that's inside their camcorder. What happens afterward won't be spoiled here, but it's not very surprising or shocking, especially if you've seen many other found footage movies. The filmmakers save the most intense moments for the last 10 minutes or so, so they do a decent job of building up tension. Fortunately, the performances by everyone including Miranda MacDougall are natural enough to convince you that you're not watching someone act. That's not an easy task.

      Interestingly, when Tara first goes on camera, there's some brief comic relief when she's eating as she's about to be interviewed. The rest of the film doesn't have much comic relief which makes sense because otherwise it would've veered into a parody. Just as expected, there's some shaky cam, although not nearly as much as in The Blair Witch Project which this film references---Matthew and Jordan were huge fans of that cult classic. Hunting Matthew Nichols is far better well-written and more captivating than the lackluster and lazy Shelby Oaks, so if you didn't like that disappointing misfire, you'll probably like this one more. At a running time of 1 hour and 29 minutes, Hunting Matthew Nichols opens nationwide via Dropshock Pictures and Moon7 Films.

Number of times I checked my watch: 2

      Doug (Johnny Pemberton), a divorced drug addict struggling to make ends meet, finds an injured mermaid he named Destiny (Avery Potemri), puts her in his bathtub to try to nurse her back to health, and falls in love with her in Mermaid. Meanwhile, Ron (Robert Patrick), a mobster who he owes money to, hunts him down. Writer/director Tyler Cornack has made a wickedly funny and unabashedly absurd horror comedy. Logic gets thrown out of the window from the very first few minutes, but that's okay because, as Hitchcock once wisely observed, logic is dull, and there's something more important than logic: imagination. Although Mermaid doesn't push any boundaries in the comedy or horror department, it does have a pretty good command of tone despite the genre-bending plot. You'd probably enjoy watching this with a large crowd and, ideally, a little high because it's quite a wild, audacious ride that's unafraid to be a bonkers, grotesque and shocking B-movie. It's also worth mentioning the solid makeup and costume design of the mermaid. The best way to describe Mermaid is that it's like The Little Mermaid and The Shape of Water on acid, so if that sounds good to you, you'll enjoy this mindlessly entertaining slice of horror comedy. At a running time of 1 hour and 45 minutes, Mermaid opens at Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn via Utopia.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1