How far would you go for a woman who claims with a straight face to be “endeavoring to bring about a change in consciousness through our art?” Not that far, probably: Confronted with that statement, most people would likely make a polite excuse and back away slowly. But most people are not actors, or even aspiring actors, and Sophia Takal‘s eerily askew, drily funny “Act One” thrives — like the character who says those words — on the hunger and anxiety and potential madness of those with an earnest desire to become someone else, before a crowd, for at least a moment in time.
Observing one such person, a highschooler in whom no one else much believes, as she falls into the psychological grip of an acting coach with a very dangerous method, “Act One” is quietly and affectingly plausible until it follows its young protagonist, with pleasingly ripe conviction, off the deep end. At face value, this might all seem quite silly. But the film holds you, in part because stars Ella Beatty and Ari Graynor are so steadfast in their commitment to the bit, and in part because the film isn’t quick to let on what “the bit” actually is. Takal’s approach is unpredictably perched between utter seriousness and high-wire camp; the anonymous stretch of late-’90s American suburbia in which it’s set is recognizable, but feels dreamed, not altogether tethered to reality.
