In METHOD, a feature film by Darya Amirshahi, we are treated to a take on a main character dealing with small town life during Covid-19 times who has dreams of moving to Los Angeles to become an actor.  Amy is too headstrong for her own good, going with her gut and dropping out of school to pursue her passion.  Passion is a fantastic explainer for this film.  “All heart and no head” are what many people would think of Amy.  Her impulsive nature has her all over the place in regard to her career plans, her relationships with her only friend Lydia, and her mother.

The director does a marvelous job of winning the viewer over on Amy’s pursuit of her acting career, even if in the beginning Amy doesn’t seem to be able to act her way into the next scene.  In fact, good on actress Rebecca Lachmansingh for her portrayal of Amy, as she shows the character’s positive growth through the movie without coming off hacky.

METHOD has a few story directions it could go but chooses to stick to Amy’s story the entire time.  It would have been nice to get more of Lydia’s (Jacquelyn Yushkov) story and her passion for writing.

The director shows how insane a lot of actors need to be to think they’re going to make it in the industry and creates a very realistic take on the audition and submission processes.  The industry is one of constant “no” until that one yes opens the door to future ones.  METHOD is imbued with the indie ethos and understands the assignment when it comes to showing what can be done with a few dollars and a bucket of insanity.

The idea of having Amy’s subconscious also played by Lachmansingh was a bit overdone and I would have preferred either those emotions be expressed to another character, or through the main character’s emoting.

Lydia’s character is wasted, which is too bad because Yushkov’s performance was good opposite Lachmansingh’s.

METHOD vies so hard to put passion to the fore with the mostly can-do attitude of Amy’s character and succeeds in doing so.  This movie does everything mostly right, even if it does it unevenly.  There is room for improvement here, but I mean that in a good way.  It will be great to see what tricks the director has up their sleeves next.