Review: Grand Theft Hamlet

Grand Theft Auto isn’t just a game anymore and it hasn’t been for a while. Like Roblox, WOW, and Fortnite, the live service has taken on a life of its own where it’s increasingly become a landscape for jobs, user-generated content, and of course movies and TV series. Machinima has been around for decades, obvious examples being content being produced by studios like Rooster Teeth and Dorkly rife with comedy even if scripted. The newest trend is the increase in unscripted machinima which brings us to Grand Theft Hamlet. 

Take away the fact that the feature-length film from Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls is a documentary set in Grand Theft Auto and imagine the hell that it takes trying to put on a production of anything. Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night does just this as we get a take on how the first Saturday Night episode came to be for NBC. Fortunately for that production, they didn’t have to deal with Chevy Chase and John Belushi running around with homing launchers and grenades like what is the hell of trying to do anything productive in a gaming world. Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls take it one-step further when they team up with Mark Oosterveen to stage a play in GTA Online, and not just any play, Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Sam, Mark, and Pinny are trained professionals both in front of and behind the camera, doing a production in real-life of Hamlet is a challenge, doing one in a public lobby for the most cynical of all gaming experiences makes this feat that much more conflicting.

At the height of COVID, Pinny and Sam document these efforts in what eventually becomes Grand Theft Hamlet, almost a before, during, and even after presentation for one of the classical examples of stage work juxtaposed in the digital hell hole that is Los Santos. Just as the film kicks off I’m feeling like at home playing my own game of GTA (PSN: Jaykilla) complete with all of the notifications, real-time events, and constant trolling by barcode accounts that Grand Theft Auto Online is known for. But, it’s Mark and Sam’s sweetness in the digital world that becomes one of the film’s most endearing qualities and I couldn’t help but keep rooting for these players as time goes on. Pinny enters the game as a novice and is clearly along for the ride, probably even shocked by all that is going on, but for someone who is JUST getting into the game I was astonished with Pinny’s aptitude for directing a machinima in the most challenging of most environments in which to do so. Sam, Pinny’s husband, is an out-of-work actors clearly stressed by the real-life situations that bring forth COVID and is really just playing GTA to get his mind off of things. Mark is in a similar situation as Sam, but doesn’t have the comfort of a family when the game gets turned off, GTAO IS his family in a lot of respects. Mind you, nobody playing even comes across as true savant and probably wouldn’t quit their day jobs in being professional gamers that you can trust to do missions or even partake in MC club drug sales. But, these people are on a different mission altogether…they need to get to the Greek!

Like reality TV, a lot of the challenges of putting on this production comes to pass. Sam and Pinny’s real-life marital arguments spill over to the game whilst Mark pleads with the couple in continuing to help with the production put me through all of the emotions just as compelling as anything live-action has ever done for me. Sam and Mark come across as sweethearts at the end of it all, and hopefully good friends. As a seasoned practitioner of the game I couldn’t help but wish I could’ve been there and shown the producers how to do an invite-only session or turn off all of the job distractions but how the hell would they deal with real-life distractions like kids, jobs (or lack thereof), and even funerals at a time when COVID-19 was it’s most rabid?

Grand Theft Hamlet shines in allowing the unscripted behind-the-scenes drama to be fully on display while the in-game drama becomes a welcome tutorial to non-GTAers what it’s like being in a world that naturally doesn’t like you. Sam, Pinny, and Mark’s endearing qualities as lovely people plays as a  passionate “fuck you”to the high-octane violence of GTA Online that is the norm just as you login. Everybody is hysterical in this production and the production of Hamlet itself is very well-done and Pinny does a fabulous job of getting great shots of Los Santos which is a setting that still very much holds up as one of the true technical marvels of the gaming world. Shots of random NPCs, the constant off-camera berating, and the after parties at the conclusion of Hamlet all help convey a living/breathing atmosphere that should be a welcome sight to new and never fans of Grand Theft Auto.

Earlier I mentioned that I wasn’t sure if Sam, Pinny and Mark could make a living being gamers due to their lack of prowess of being a true GTA player. As I was leaving the theater from my screening at IFC Theater, I’m noticing a line out the chilly door of people wanting to see the next screening and was told that the initial screenings at the Drafthouse cinemas had sold-out the entire evening. I’ve never been so happy to be so wrong. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to duck out and defend my MC business from being shut down by cops.