Actress’ judiciously selected boldness rejects tepid mediocrity, for which I loved it.

| Jan 25, 2023

Greene's experimental approach, along with the haunting beauty of his film's star, makes for a fascinating look into the artifice inherent in documentary filmmaking and our own lives.

| Jun 20, 2019

Robert Greene's past two documentaries - Kati with an "i", Fake It So Real - were impressive, but they didn't prepare one for the leap he's made with Actress, which opens Friday at The Belcourt.

| Mar 1, 2019

There are uncomfortable moments here in the mixing of observed and staged situations, many of which involve a special sense of the ironic, to be appreciated on multiple levels.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 28, 2015

At one point her agent tells her she needs a demo reel to get work in LA; watching her drop tears for the camera as her home life disintegrates, I had to wonder whether this was it.

| Feb 26, 2015

Greene also makes use of color design and lighting patterns familiar from classic melodrama, to bold, dreamlike impact. It's a dazzling singularity, a film to be seen and seen again as much as described to whomever you're going to watch it with next.

| Feb 25, 2015

Combining artifice with vérité documentary style, [Greene] underscores the inextricability of real life and make-believe, of genuine behavior and self-conscious performance.

| Feb 5, 2015

"Actress" is a calling card that is less a documentary than it is an audition.

| Original Score: C+ | Feb 2, 2015

...is Burre giving a 'performance' or using [Greene's] camera as a life-altering confessional? The compelling but not exactly sympathetic portrait is one hell of a risky audition.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 27, 2015

This reality movie project is mainly for fans of the 'The Wire' and actress Brandy Burre. People in show business find themselves fascinating. I'm interested in them, of course, but not necessarily fascinated.

| Original Score: C | Jan 1, 2015

Here's another doc that starts out about one thing then pivots into another direction entirely

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 16, 2014

You could call Burre extremely selfish or extremely skilled, yet it's impossible to dismiss her complaints. Actress raises but refuses to answer some unsettling questions. How strong is your marriage? And: How well do you know your spouse?

| Dec 4, 2014

Robert Greene's extraordinary collaboration with actress Brandy Burre is a playful, provocative examination of self-performance.

| Nov 14, 2014

Zooming in and out of Burre's life, Greene foregoes true insight in favor of a stylistic approach, using cinematic language that's often reserved for fiction and feature films, and the result leaves you admiring "Actress" greatly, but from a distance.

| Original Score: B- | Nov 10, 2014

One of the greatest documentaries I've ever seen.

| Nov 7, 2014

A good portion of the cinema verite proceedings, ranging from endless glimpses of her domestic life to footage of her performing an original song in a Greenwich Village cabaret, prove less than arresting.

| Nov 7, 2014

It's a story with universal appeal rendered in intimate flourishes.

| Original Score: A- | Nov 7, 2014

The effect is, by turns, playful and haunting: a modern reimagining of the "woman's picture" that questions notions about nonfiction filmmaking.

| Nov 7, 2014

Even calling "Actress" a documentary doesn't feel entirely accurate.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 7, 2014

Neither a mere infomercial nor a facile 'Is this real or not?' puzzle.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 6, 2014