It’s January 2021, and cases of COVID-19 is are still upending every corner of the world. For some, video games became a necessity to escape the realities of current life, and the expansively infinite world of Grand Theft Auto Online continuously serves as an outlet for that.

Friends Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen are British actors who are being impacted by the social distancing guidelines which have made film, theater, and television work impossible. They find solace in GTA by shooting things, people, and pulling heists. But one day, Sam stumbles upon an in-game amphitheater, and the Eureka moment comes instantaneously. Why don’t they perform Shakespeare’s famed Hamlet in GTA? What seems improbable begins to pick up steam as Sam and Mark expand their network, put out casting feelers , and really organize the hell out of this thing. For every 50 chaos makers who only want to drive mass chaos, there’s one person who’s ready to take this as seriously as the duo is.

In the first five minutes of Grand Theft Hamlet’s runtime, we see a player-controlled avatar choose to uppercut an innocent valet. You know, just GTA things, and pretty tame GTA things at that. Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto has long preached player freedom, and with the advent of GTA Online, players can do their own thing and not have it solely contained to their single player experience. But putting on Hamlet in this world? Impossible. Making a movie out of it? Doubly so. And yet somehow, someway, it’s led to an experience that is surprisingly engrossing.

Shot entirely in-game, directors Pinny Grylls and Crane let the unpredictable mayhem of Rockstar’s gem be the star of the show. The hilarity writes itself as we follow the struggles of the crew to find spaces to rehearse, recruit, and plan logistics, only to find them and get led on and/or trolled often on their way to getting wasted (that’s killed for those less attuned to the GTA ecosystem). Editing this in-game odyssey is no small feat and could have easily become disorienting to follow, but Grylls does a superb job at making it clear who’s who and the role they’re playing.

The power of having an outlet for imaginative expression alongside a collective is important, particularly in times where seeing others in-person was unsafe. While Grand Theft Hamlet takes place in the world of GTA, the message is that realistically, art knows no bounds and can thrive out of any concrete with steady resilience and immense patience. One of the more poignant moments of the documentary comes in the final third where Sam analyzes the parallels of Grand Theft Auto and our world, specifically the penchants for violence and chaos but also the moments of communal unity and grace sometimes found in the least obvious of places.

There’s parts of Grand Theft Hamlet where one may wonder how raw the “performances” are. But by and large, it’s a documentary that manages to be emotionally rich while being extremely atypical. If this has proved one thing, it’s that people can do more in a GTA game than pull off heists, perform random acts of anarchy, or play bowling with their cousin.

B+

Photo credits go to IMDB.com. indiewire.com, and movieweb.com.