It Takes a Lunatic (2019) User Reviews

Acting ... up

[kosmasp · 8/10 · 21 February 2020]

Not just a teacher - and a lot of celebrities/actors who praise him. This is as in depth as it can get. If you didn't know the man (I didn't and I guess most people outside of New York or an in depth knowledge of certain actors and their studies didn't either), now you know him.

Now as in after you watch this documentary. 2 hours which never feel boring or stretched out. This is nicely structured and well researched and edited. If you like actors and don't mind a look behind their process and a general look inside their head and feelings - this is for you. There are also certain specific events and it also shows a social (commentary) side of the man. Truly an example of someone who broke barriers and helped a lot of people (across gender, skin color and/or nationality).

A treat for New York theater afficionados

[allenmullen · 7/10 · 4 November 2019]

A fitting tribute to a highly influential acting coach, theater producer, and artistic director of the American Place Theater, who has been influential in opening up dramatic, off-Broadway theater to female, African American, and Asian American playwrights.

interesting story. Spoilers

[ksf-2 · 8/10 · 13 December 2020]

SPOILERS -- Doc on Wynn Handman. making plays that may or may not have any chance of being made in other venues. told by Handman himself, and the actors and directors who actually took his class: Alec Baldwin, James Caan, Richard Gere, Mike Douglas, Sydney Pollack. he filmed many of the actual sessions, so much of the documentary is showing his actual classes. and we hear a couple tales of his time in the navy. we hear the origins of the name, and the first location was in a church. then they got their own theater near broadway. Success! it's good. Handman was putting on plays by and about african americans, for audiences who hadn't experienced these things before. a discussion of one play that might be considered by some to be a failure was "La Turista", where the audience thought they had killed a live chicken on stage. a telling of how The Cannibals didn't go over in New York, but was a HUGE hit in Germany. it turned out the people of germany got the point Tabori was making, in highlighting the horrors which had occurred during WW II. interesting story of an interesting man. Mr. Handman recently passed away in April 2020.

Short Cuts are Unwatchable

[cgarton1 · 2/10 · 21 August 2020]

There's no reason to make anything with continuous 2 second cuts. It's dizzying and unwatchable.