I'm not going to beat around the bush here – if you're hoping that GTA 6 just got a miraculous release date out of nowhere and that you'll be able to play it this week, you're wide of the mark. However, thanks to boutique streaming service Mubi, if you want to watch a pretty remarkable documentary literally made entirely in GTA 5, you're in a lot more luck.
Mubi's making Grand Theft Hamlet available to stream for its members starting this Friday, 21 February, after a run of film festival appearances that have seen the documentary get pretty stellar reviews. It's about a pair of out-of-work actors using the pandemic lockdowns of 2021 to attempt to put on the first-ever Shakespeare production entirely using Grand Theft Auto Online.
That means seeking out willing participants to audition for parts in their play of choice, Hamlet, source of one of the most famous lines in all of theatre: "To be, or not to be, that is the question." They'll gather together a ramshackle assortment of new and experienced actors who have all sought refuge from their personal lockdowns in this very online game.
The trailer embedded above makes it immediately clear that this is a documentary unlike any other, though. There don't seem to be any talking heads at all, or shots of the real-life bodies of that cast of actors. Instead, the movie is entirely filmed in-game, with all the chaos of online activity that comes with the territory.
That includes actors getting shot by police or other players midway through line reads, vehicles crashing in spectacular style to bring sequences down, and much more besides. It also ensures some pretty wooden lip-syncing and facial animation, but that comes to be a key part of its charm.
This is basically a charming portrait of an online gaming community, after all, warts and all – so if you've ever sunk hours into GTA Online you'll probably find it pretty fascinating. Plus, the biggest streaming services out there can't compete with this sort of mad originality – it's Mubi at its best. That smaller, more curated catalogue of films looks pretty brilliant from where I'm standing.
