'Becoming Bulletproof' is haphazard but moving
Every year, two brothers, Will and Peter Halby, and their wives, Vanessa and Ila, put together a film project at Hollywood’s Zeno Mountain that brings in from around the United States aspiring performers with disabilities to act out a scripted feature film. The documentary “Becoming Bulletproof,” directed by Michael Barnett, is about the making of “Bulletproof,” a western starring, among others, A.J. Murray, who uses a wheelchair and has cerebral palsy and plays the town mayor, and Jeremy Vest, who was born with Williams syndrome and plays the film’s hero, Bulletproof Jackson.
As a piece of filmmaking, “Becoming Bulletproof” is haphazard and overloaded with talking heads. But as a window into the lives of some of these actors, it’s often moving. As a viewer, I felt privileged to make the acquaintance, in particular, of Murray, a young man whose clear-eyed uplift in the face of so much vicissitude is enormously inspiring. Grade: B (This film is not rated.)
