Actor Martinez is a 2016 American mockumentary film written and directed by Mike Ott and Nathan Silver and starring Arthur Martinez.
Premise
Independent film directors Mike Ott and Nathan Silver are hired by Arthur Martinez, a Denver computer repairman and would-be actor, to make a film starring Arthur as a fictionalized version of himself.[1]
Guy Lodge of Variety gave the film a positive review and wrote, "Narrative and reality clash, tussle, and are eventually rendered indistinguishable in a witty, tortured puzzle picture..."[5]
Charles Bramesco of Uproxx gave the film a positive review and wrote, "Actor Martinez is more like a dense work of film criticism that plays like a movie, and an enjoyable one at that."[6]
Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review and wrote, "Actor Martinez raises plenty of questions. The problem is that none of them are particularly interesting."[7]
Chuck Bowen of Slant Magazine awarded the film three and a half stars out of four and wrote, "Mike Ott and Nathan Silver's Actor Martinez has a ghostly, tremulous quality that's bound to get under the skin."[8]
Marjorie Baumgarten of The Austin Chronicle awarded the film two stars out of five and wrote, "Everyone involved in Actor Martinez deserves kudos for the effort, but the unengaging result would be better chalked up to a failed experiment rather than shared with others in theatrical settings."[9]
Andy Webster of The New York Times gave the film a positive review and wrote, "The self-references here, while intriguing, approach a comic navel-gaze. "Actor Martinez" has a saving grace, however: Ms. Burdge, radiating her customary charisma."[10]
Kimber Myers of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review and wrote, "Don't let the low-res, low-budget filmmaking fool you. Actor Martinez is an ambitious film that works on a variety of levels."[11]
Jason Bailey of Flavorwire gave the film a positive review and wrote, "Fascinatingly, the film keeps working its way around to the very questions we're asking of it, and bouncing up against its own boundaries in ways that are either reflective or indulgent, or maybe both."[12]
