Summary
In one of the stranger developments in cinema, a film shot entirely withinRockstar’sGrand Theft Auto 5has been touring the film festival circuit and is planned to be released theatrically. Grand Theft Hamlet is about two unemployed friends who want to stage a production of Hamlet within Grand Theft Auto 5 during the COVID-19 pandemic, but their real-world problems begin to intrude upon their virtual production.
The entirety of the movie is shot inside Grand Theft Auto 5, despite the real-world element of the narrative. It’s reminiscent of the ‘machinima’ genre of video that was popular on YouTube in the early 2010s, with Rooster Teeth’s Red vs. Blue being one of the most notable examples. That being said, this isn’t a half-baked hobbyist project either as arthouse cinema distribution company Mubi is attached to the film, with the company posting about Grand Theft Hamlet on X.
“An innovative, immersive take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, shot entirely inside the world of Grand Theft Auto, Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane’s Grand Theft Hamlet is coming soon to US theatres and streaming globally,” the post reads.
Grand Theft Hamlet Has Mixed Reviews
Mubi is known for distributing several acclaimed independent films, like Aftersun, The Substance and Decision to Leave. Grand Theft Hamlet has already been screened at several film festivals, currently holding an average review score of 3.6/5 on review siteLetterboxd.
“The movie filmed entirely within GTA is the funniest and most inspiring movie I’ve seen in a while?, reads a review from HunterGasaway. “The high points of this documentary are the spontaneous interactions with bizarre and violent Online players that wander into our hero’s experiment. The film starts to creak a little pit in the moments where the filmmakers have self-conscious conversations attempting to sweatily justify the greater meaning of the endeavour. Overall, Grand Theft Hamlet is a lightweight but charming exploration of the follies and bounties of creating art,” writes Robbie C.
Naturally, there are a few negative reviews too. “This is just a dumb GTA 5 YouTube video stretched to an hour and a half and played at a f*cking film festival. I laughed a lot, but every laugh was just me laughing at GTA 5 being GTA 5,” writes Kai. “The idea of a movie being made in GTA V is funny, but only for ten minutes. Then it just dragged on,” says Logan Jefford.
Grand Theft Hamlet is directed by Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane, has a runtime of 89 minutes and is coming to theatres in the United States soon, according to Mubi.
Grand Theft Auto 5
WHERE TO PLAY
One of the biggest-selling games in history, Grand Theft Auto 5 takes you to open-world San Andreas. Assume the role of three characters, Trevor, Franklin, and Michael, as they take different paths in their criminal lives. The streets of Los Santos await in GTA 5.
