Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Al Pacino's deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare's significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of "Richard III."
Pacino's hybrid documentary blending rehearsal footage, street interviews, and performed scenes from Richard III is genuinely singular — no other film-maker has tackled Shakespeare's accessibility quite this way. The acting, especially Pacino's own Richard and contributions from McKellen, Spacey, and Mirren, is outstanding. Cinematography is functional and unremarkable, befitting its documentary-hybrid nature. The structural looseness (moving between documentary and drama) keeps the plot discursive rather than tightly argued, and the ending, while emotionally satisfying, doesn't resolve the central questions so much as let them linger. A highly distinctive piece of film-making passion.