MIFF 2024 Film Review - Grand Theft Hamlet

Images courtesy of Common State.

Grand Theft Hamlet (Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls, 2024), a documentary filmed entirely within Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto V (2013), follows Sam and his friend Mark, two out of work actors struggling to endure the third UK lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the help of Sam’s partner Pinny, a similarly out of of work documentary filmmaker, the trio concoct an ambitious plan: to rehearse and stage a performance of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet entirely within Grand Theft Auto V, utilising the in-game environments, actions, and random players recruited online and on the game’s servers as the actors. What could go wrong? A lot!

The inherent novelty of the premise is really something, and no doubt the main draw for most watchers. Inside Grand Theft Auto V is a satire of Americana, with its over-corporate nature, depictions of police brutality, obnoxious marketing and popular culture references, and a violent atmosphere of hostility and cynicism that permeates the game - its main appeal. All this is expressed through a game that, when shot like a documentary, reveals its inherent physical humour. Whilst conducting rehearsals, Sam and Mark are tormented endlessly by violent NPCs and police shooting at them, glitches and quirks in the game’s environment, and repeated pop-up messages of the game’s ‘challenges’. Sam and Mark, for instance, will be running through a scene and a giant pink banner plainly stating “Inflict as much damage as possible” will envelop the screen. Often during the film’s conversations, Sam and Pinny will snap to an NPC silently observing the conversation, their low-quality face humorously expressing the very game’s own behaviour and conduct. 

It is in these moments of GTA mundanity that the film truly shines, when it channels the inherent intrigue of the premise through the idiosyncratic energy of the game, and this is no better conveyed than through the character of ParTeb, a Tunisian-Finnish player wearing an alien costume who joins the production of Hamlet. English is not ParTeb’s first language, a fact he evokes most interestingly by passionately and sweetly reciting the Qur’an during his audition. He politely declines an invitation to be an actor in the play, instead performing security for the production, and in one of the film’s absolute golden scenes, hovers over the production in a VTOL jet and guns down any random players who attempt to disrupt the progress of the play, proclaiming himself to be “Murder Shakespeare” or “Killer Hamlet”. In addition to scenes involving mishaps with a large zeppelin, planes crashing, an actress using her niece’s GTA account to audition, and much, much more, the game-centred gags and commentary are the absolute highlight of the film, and by far its strongest point. Just the inherent challenge of convincing the hellish society of GTA Online to do something other than murder each other and team up on heists is something special - though admittedly Hamlet itself is not too far removed from the goings-on in a GTA Online lobby, violence-wise. It generates a heartwarming spectacle via the game’s limitations, utilising the game’s visual identity for something special.

The low points of the film are unfortunately when it tries to stray from the immediate draw of its premise. Sam and Mark reflect upon lockdown several times throughout the film, with Mark notably exhibiting severe depressive thoughts, utilising the Hamlet production as an escape from the crushing realities brought upon him and his career by the pandemic - Grand Theft Hamlet is all he has. I have no doubt that the scenes depicting discussing these conversations are based on genuine conversations they had, real-life or otherwise - sometimes it hit quite close to home, staying up till 2am online was not an uncommon sight amongst my friend group in 2020/21, and the repeated breaking of this routine was often hard to navigate. Sam and Mark notably express their frustration when actors begin dropping off once lockdown ends and they can return to work, a sentiment I’m sure many can sympathise with. As it comes across in the film itself though, these conversations feel incredibly artificially staged. Oftentimes bordering on comical in their presentation, they share these intimate conversations with a tone and conduct that feels out-of-line with the film’s otherwise sense of genuineness. 

Again, I believe it is something they may have addressed outside of the confines of the game - Crane and Grylls live in the same house - but for obvious reasons these could not be documented, and are instead conveyed through these soap opera-esque arguments that often took me out of the film. Some of them are probably real - Mark’s remark to Pinny about a funeral he had to attend recently felt genuine - but otherwise they are recorded with the knowledge of their eventual inclusion in a documentary, which hurts it a bit. This is a common issue with documentaries, the need to funnel in a narrative when a narrative is already being constructed elsewhere via unconventional means, in this case the absurdities of GTA’s online servers. I can’t help but wonder if these conversations would be better off being not included, and instead somehow referenced in a more nuanced manner that incites reflection from the audience. The notion of the virtual space of video games being one of the few ways to facilitate social intersection during the pandemic is a poignant note and one that could have been done more eloquently. On a positive note, it lends the ending of the film, which I won’t spoil, a greater emotional weight, so I can certainly see the need for these scenes, and it prompted an emotional reflection between me and my friends after the film, something I’ll never forget.

I think whatever qualms I have towards Grand Theft Hamlet’s artificial attempts at a heart-to-heart are outweighed by how organically and hilariously human the majority of the film is. Through Grand Theft Auto, a game that ostensibly stifles artistic expression from players into a cynical parody of American pop culture, the film manages to express itself through the game’s inherent absurdity. Whilst it may never escape the boundaries of its already ludicrously hilarious premise, it’s somewhat of a testament to artistic perseverance that they were able to pull this off, and even more so, nearly sell out a MIFF screening with GTA gameplay.

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Grand Theft Hamlet screened as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival, running in cinemas and online August 8th-25th.

For more info, click here.