"My magnum opus came out of my puss puss"
I believe that Betsey Brown is such an immense genius that all her brilliance gets balled up into utter chaos, and it's all so much that it will never find semblance as something that is palatable to the majority of human beings, but the glimpses are consistent. I was first exposed to Betsey in Dasha Nekrasova's directorial debut The Scary of Sixty-First, a relatively psychotic film in which my main takeaway was that Betsey Brown is a ridiculously talented and very intense actress. I have been paying attention since, and when I saw that she would be unleashing her own directorial debut, I was wholly intrigued (especially with its insane cover art and promo images).
Actors is one of the most unapologetically unhinged films I have seen in some time. As is suggested by the title, the film is meta in a multitude of ways, not just because it's made by actors and is loosely about their struggles in the business, but also because the main characters all consist of Betsey's real life family. If anything, I felt that I learned more about the actual Brown family from this than anything else. To me, it partially functions as a bizarro mockumentary of sorts, in that regard. It is Betsey's (and seemingly her entire family's) utter disregard for the general rules and formulas that viewers expect when they go to see a movie that is precisely what makes Actors such a respectable monster.
So, why would anyone want to watch a movie about some family they've never heard of? Well, you won't know until you watch. And it's kind of something beyond words, and that's what makes a rare movie experience like this so special. No one or nothing is stopping this family from being as "themselves" as possible. The one thing that CAN be put into words and is impossible not to notice, is how much graphic sex and nudity Betsey wrote and directed for herself in a movie where the cast, outside of her boyfriend, is literally just her brother, mom, and dad. That, in addition to certain transgressive plot elements, just shows that the Brown family are very UNAFRAID to make exactly what they want to make. Their movies are very clearly only for them, not for the audience, and that's refreshing.
Way too many people go into movies looking for "a message" now, and I'm not clear as to why. In the 80's and 90's (when cinema was great), people just wanted an experience, and it was lovely that way. Actors isn't going to give you some tale of advanced morale that you can adapt into some sort of text lesson, or implement into a Facebook thread. This film is about diving into unique minds; psychotic minds, even. The film is self-exploitive in an immense manner that is equally bold, brave, and hilarious. You should all feel privileged whenever someone this interesting makes a movie this sincere.
When you strip away all the by-the-books bull, you're left with an intensely personal experience, from the deepest parts of the psyche. It's hard to compare the film to much, but there are a few things that come to mind. It exists somewhere in a realm between art legend Ryan Trecartin's I-Be Area, Asia Argento's Scarlet Diva, and the works of commensurates in Betsey's circle, like director Eugene Kotlyarenko. I'm sure most people wouldn't even know how to process this, but I had a blast with it. Betsey is constantly bringing the drama and the meta up to 11, and I was cracking up plentifully. The pregnancy stuff was a riot and the nod to Possession towards the end meant a lot to me!
All hail the weirdos!
