By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Dylan Frederick | Nicholas Clark
Year: 2026
Running time: 83
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35877960/
Brett says: “If one goes into AMERICAN THEATER without prior knowledge, the first few minutes could likely have that person questioning if this is an actual theatrical production or a WAITING FOR GUFFMAN redux. Despite this, it does not take long for this documentary–yes, true blue documentary–to lift off and soar into its own weird stratosphere. Or, perhaps I should say red, white, and blue documentary.
“The premise is that a group of self-proclaimed ‘outcast’ cast and crew members assemble in a rural Georgia locale as a patched-together theatrical troupe to put on a symbolic, provocative outdoor musical of witch hunts and wrongful accusations called The Salem Experience. Each member of the cast and crew have their own personal experiences with how they’ve not fit into what they feel is a certain mold that American performing arts has become, or they’ve claimed to be outright banished in their former performing arts communities by the cancel culture movement. Mostly, this is tied to their conservative or right wing political views and stances.
“As for the director of the theatrical production, his name is Brian Crowdus, and he is clearly the centerpiece of the film. He is a gay conservative who stages this reactionary piece as a result of what he claims are wrongful accusations toward him by the media and former cast and crews with which he has worked. There is a world of other information that comes to light during the film, but to explain it all away destroys the accomplishments of this documentary.
“First, the format of this film is its bread and butter. There are no sit-down interviewers, aside from the documentation of press day for the play’s production. Everything is immersive, fly-on-the-wall footage in which Crowdus and company have simply opened their world up to the filmmakers to observe. The drama and story of what’s taking place unfolds in a very real and authentic way; that is, the feel is–ironically–not staged. This is very essential as to why this movie is so successful.
“Now, predispositions can play a major role in viewers’ respective approaches to this film. Even though there is no narration, gotcha interviews, or slanted title card commentary, a major portion of the negative or positive reactions to the film for some people will stem from simply disagreeing or agreeing with who the people are in the film from the get-go and what they stand for. However, this really seems like it would be missing a lot of what this film manages to accomplish. Inasmuch as the theatrical production within the film is claiming unfairness throughout Western media, the film itself seems to be offering its own rebuttal by letting the people within and the circumstances within speak for themselves. It does not have to “say” anything in order to be saying plenty on that front. The film’s neutrality becomes a very pronounced voice.
“The editing is beyond exceptional. The from-a-distance filming approach can have such limitations, but each person becomes such an identifiable character, and the driving conflict of the film builds and journeys through peaks and valleys as if pre-written for a screenplay. There is beauty is how it challenges certain audience members because the familiar mantra of ‘love and art will conquer all’ is saddled onto a very unlikely set of personalities that one might not expect to tout such a phrase. So, for those in the performing arts realm, the struggles and the artistic mission itself are both very relatable, but it’s brilliant how certain sensibilities will still conflict with what would normally be a ‘root for the underdogs’ documentary premise. In short, the film is challenging is all of the right artistic ways.
“AMERICAN THEATER will not win over conservatives to the art world, and it will not try to sway progressives’ acceptance of conflicting ideologies. It will, however, accentuate struggle, and that is something that any side of the political spectrum seems to stake as a universal claim. While preconceptions are tongue-in-cheek realized by the filmmakers before the opening shot of the film is even revealed, it’s tremendous to see a documentary that theoretically asks its audience to view it as if within a vacuum, but the film is still fully aware of what will materialize from that when the world outside of filmmaking once again rears its head.
“4 CATS OUT OF 5“