Ella Beatty is the malleable teenage student to Ari Graynor's obsessive acting coach in an archly heightened exercise that intermittently flirts with delicious high camp.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
@guylodge See All
How far would you go for a woman who claims with a straight face to be “endeavoring to bring about a change in consciousness through our art?” Not that far, probably: Confronted with that statement, most people would likely make a polite excuse and back away slowly. But most people are not actors, or even aspiring actors, and Sophia Takal‘s eerily askew, drily funny “Act One” thrives — like the character who says those words — on the hunger and anxiety and potential madness of those with an earnest desire to become someone else, before a crowd, for at least a moment in time.
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