A washed-up child star becomes the unlikely mentor for a new up and coming talent in the new indie drama YES.
Patrick Doyle (Tim Realbuto) has been out of the fame game for many years due to an alleged incident of sexual misconduct which got him removed from the business and spends his days alone in his apartment, drunk, overweight and vaping, teaching aspiring young acting students who clearly need some proper training and guidance, whilst watching a specific episode of his old TV series. However, when his sister Annie (Jenna Leigh Green) invites him to see her daughter Agatha’s appearance in a Long Island High School production of ROMEO AND JULIET, the not-so-sober Patrick (born Peter) reluctantly decides to come along.
It is here in this experimental version of the Shakespeare legend that he claps eyes on 17-year old Jeremiah (Nolan Gould) in the lead male role and invites him through his drama teacher to come and learn as the most expensive private acting teacher a little more about what made Patrick Doyle the childhood sensation. It is here that both Patrick and Jeremiah will learn a bit more about their own home truths – and about whether the acting, or even fame, game, will be the right future for them both.
Directed by Rob Margolies and adapted from his own stage play by Realbuto himself, YES is a classic mentor-student tale we’ve seen in films like GOOD WILL HUNTING and WHIPLASH, where the father figure pushes the young apprentice to even more extreme and vivid heights. It is also a movie that tells the acting training game like it is – and anyone who has ever had a private session with a teacher before that all-important audition or casting will know exactly what the dynamic is and how vulnerable acting students can feel when they step into a challenging and intimate space to make their lives extraordinary.
We saw the Technicolor version of some of this in Damien Chazelle’s award-winning blockbuster LA LA LAND and there is some of that side here in terms of the process of auditions. However, this is a more intense reflection of the other realities of the acting trade – and the effect that pursuing this dream in the name of art can be for some individuals.
YES is a model film for acting students to view, as a few home truths will definitely hit a few home runs here. The film has deservedly and understandably won awards already – and it is a movie that will continue to generate appeal and interest as it enters the indie film marketplace.
