Looking for Richard

1996 documentary

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Aging actor Al Pacino pretends to appreciate Shakespeare as a ploy to get into Winona Ryder's pants. It works, but the joke's on him because all he really needed to do was front a 1990's alternative rock band at least as good as The Lemonheads which probably would have been much easier than gathering together all of these actors (pronounced here so that the second syllable pretentiously rhymes with "bores" instead of "burrs") and literary scholars (pronounced in the normal way). She also ends up stealing a few of his props.

It was great watching Pacino's enthusiasm for Richard III here. I'm not sure how much this succeeds in making the play more accessible or relevent to the (m)asses. In fact, this particular ass was just as confused as ever about what was going on in this play, especially the first act. There are so many characters, and I'm so far removed from the historical context. But it is still a highly entertaining glimpse at the heart and soul behind the scenes of putting on a production of Shakespeare's work. I would have liked to see more interviews with regular folk and, oddly enough, less of the Shakespeare since the play has the look of a really cheap PBS production. I did enjoy watching the performers showing off their acting chops, however, and Pacino's ever-shifting hunchback and gimpy arm was pretty funny. I also liked seeing somebody doing Shakespeare with a backwards baseball cap.

This was a Cory recommendation.