Actor Martinez

Mike Ott and Nathan Silver's film has a ghostly, tremulous quality that eats under the skin.

Actor Martinez is a fascinating collaboration between these two filmmakers, who seem willing to pillory their own image and dissect the nature of moviemaking in order to uncover real cinematic truth.

Blurring the line between a narrative movie and a documentary, Actor Martinez is a film experiment that’s difficult to unpack but hilarious to watch unfold.

Like the man at its center, the film is aggressive and awkward, but there’s a sense of playfulness in how it pokes and prods at the world of independent cinema.

It’s a clever but self-defeating exercise: a meta-fictional cautionary tale about itself.

The film aims to be a cautionary tale, but it doesn’t seem that the filmmakers have absorbed the lesson.

Whether the real-life Martinez is this hotheaded and quick-tempered is left a mystery, but it matters not a whit, because even five minutes in the company of this Martinez is excruciating.