Rating: 
Summary: we get the art we deserve
Review: Matthew Barney's Cremaster cycle is audacious and precious little else. Apparently, that's the easy sell in today's art world, where bravado is consistently mistaken for unalloyed genius. You can't blame Mr. Barney for spotting and exploiting an opportunity, but the future will find him in the same dustbin of irrelevance that currently houses Jeff Koons, Robert Longo and Julian Schnabel.
Rating:
Summary: thin as tissue
Review: never ever once do you get that suspension of disbelief that lets you get sucked into this, nothing more than a gaint overfinanced movie set swarming with smarmy stylists and artworld insects buzzing up each others' asses. if a film needs a book to explain it, bah; it either stands on its own or it doesn't. it's a humongous narcissistic indulgence. yawn. no wonder he married that grandstanding twit Bjork, they're perfect for each other, experts at convincing droves of goldfish that they're in the presence of the real thing. pretty, vacant.
Rating:
Summary: What is Barney's Problem?
Review: Oh for cryin' out loud, quit ditzing around and just release the five part film cycle. This piece, at best, is a special added feature on a full DVD set.
Rating: 
Summary: not for the artistically lazy masses
Review: okay, so its not the full version. but grab whats available now and watch it.
but only if you can handle the challenges. judging a good number of (practically violent )reviews here it is refreshing to know that cremaster can join schanbel and anger's output, etc in works that dont cater to the american masses who diet regularly on hollywood big mac crap like last samurai.
i have watched this at least ten times and find new treasures upon each viewing.
its weird fun and addictive.
Rating:
Summary: A total waste of 31 minutes
Review: Perhaps the most god-awful piece of poop I've ever seen. Make it go away! Make it go away!
Rating:
Summary: Confused Barney Style
Review: The DVD is not the complete Cremaster 3 movie. Easy for most fans to figure out but if you are just getting into Barney or saw Cremaster 3 at a special showing this is only part of it. This DVD contains a 30 minute "Order" movie and then it seems a longer version using multi angle feature that is very difficult to figure out. I finally had to get on the computer to play the DVD and use the controls there find the "angles" Great art and love the work but DVD still confusing.
Rating:
Summary: Matthew's Guide to Dating and Intamacy
Review: The Order is 30 minute skit taken from Mathew Barney's Cremaster 3. Upon watching it without understanding the creator, it comes off as a campy art house film heavy on the setting and low on the sense. It does make sense if you understand Mathew Barney. You can summarize his themes into 2 single ideas. First, Matthew Barney is constantly struggling to validate his machismo, and second, he is confounded by his simultaneous need for female companionship, and distaste for the female psyche. He is an art house Robert Crumb, in other words. The Order, is a singular work, describing his personal journey through what he perceives as the female psyche. It is a quintessential male perspective. The protagonist must climb through a series of levels in what seems to be an obstacle coarse. Obstacles range in feminine personality, from dancing lamb eared Broadway girls (alluding to play of adolescent girls), to contradictory seduction/domination of a cat woman (alluding to contradictive nature of sex and desire). All the while characters not likely understood by even Matthew Barney, are working at their tasks. You can tell Matthew Barney is thinking hard about this, and how absurd he thinks is the female perspective. He is visualizing his path through relationships and at the same time presenting a metaphor for a sperm traveling to the egg, which is highly suggested by the circular cavity by which the protagonist is climbing through.
Rating: 
Summary: Rent, don't buy, but what are you waiting for? Rent now!
Review: The Order: From Cremaster 3 (Matthew Barney, 2002)First off, let me just say that the disc is misrepresented by most people. Yes, it's a teaser DVD released in anticipation of the full Cremaster boxed set (which was supposed to be out 16 September 2003, and is now pushed back vaguely to "sometime in 2004"). No, it's not a hundred twenty minutes of Cremaster 3, which ran three hours in the theaters. It's thirty minutes of Cremaster 3 that occur towards the end of the film. So at the prices you're seeing it selling for at amazon, ebay, etc., it's not worth it unless you already know you love Cremaster (for reasons specified below). As a rental, though, The Order is an absolute must. I don't know whether Matthew Barney created the subsection of Cremaster 3 called The Order with an eye towards releasing it as a teaser, but one way or the other, it works fantastically. The Cremaster Cycle is that rarest of oddities, a series of films that have managed to become wildly popular despite having content that would leave the average filmgoer walking out scratching his head and saying "what on earth did I just sit through?" For that matter, most film snobs will wonder the same thing. Cremaster is like the Ezra Pound's Cantos of modern film; you'll enjoy it on the surface, but there's much more to be found if you happen to be up on such topics as Biblical history, the Masonic initiation rites, the Paralympics, and other such cultural obscurities. But don't let such a thing stop you. I know there's a lot of you out there who just have a thing for men in kilts. You get that, too. Cremaster 3 is an allegorical tale detailing the construction of the Chrysler Building and linking it to the construction of the Temple of Solomon. The Order is a piece of this (filmed in the Guggenheim Museum, a gorgeous space made even more so by the film's set decoration) that deals far more with the Temple of Solomon aspect and the focus on the Masonic initiation rites. The protagonist is the Masonic Entered Apprentice (played by Barney). He starts at the bottom of a large cylindrical room with a spiral walkway that goes up five levels, with each level being a degree of Masonic initiation. Needless to say, this is not easy; he can't just walk up, but must climb, and each degree has a particular challenge he must face; an aggressive chorus line, a battle between two New York punk bands (Murphy's Law and Agnostic Front), a love interest (Paralympic gold medalist and Olympic athlete Aimee Mullins), The Five Points of Fellowship (you tell me, I have no idea) and, at the pinnacle, the Architect of the Temple of Solomon and the Chrysler Building himself (played by artist Richard Serra). Like the rest of the film, the Apprentice's assent is not a linear thing; he bounces back and forth between levels, trying to figure out what's going on as much as we are. Pieces of each puzzle are scattered throughout, giving the whole thing an odd, Myst-like feel. (In fact, the Apprentice does not end with Serra, but on a lower level; non-linearity at its finest?) Where the DVD of The Order may become purchasable for the average Joe who finds himself enamored with the Cremaster films is in the bonus material, which is what stretches the disc out to the promised 120 minutes. There are six full songs from each band to be found if you dig around enough, and a whole lot of outtake footage from each degree; various shots taken from various angles that extend each degree into a mini-film of its own (for example, the chorus line on the first level, who actually get maybe four minutes of screen time in the finished piece, do a whole fifteen-minute routine. The choreography is wonderful, and one wonders why you never see such things in actual chorus line performances). For most of us, though, The Order is bound to do exactly what it set out to do: what our appetites for the whole boxed set. If there's as much bonus material in the box as there is on this disc, it's going to be huge, and wonderful, and worth whatever Palm Pictures ends up charging for it. See this now. **** ½
Rating:
Summary: Very weird but fun
Review: This film makes no sense to me but I really liked it. It contains some fascinating imagery, and it's full of energy and mystery. Fans of surrealistic films & art will probably enjoy it. I can't relate to Matthew Barney's obsesssion with Masonic symbolism. To me that stuff it boring. But as a pure visual experience the film is pretty interesting, and those viewers who are open-minded and imaginative are sure to form their own individual interpretations of it. BTW, I also had a lot of confusion about the "multi-angle" feature. This is one DVD that should come with an instruction manual. Maybe it was hard for me to figure out because I've never had any experience playing video games or computer games.
Rating:
Summary: horrible
Review: this is the most pointless film ever. The art community should read the Emperor's New Clothes i mean god what an absolutly meaningless statement, and what a waste of my time. I guess this could be made up with awesome visuals, but i didn't find them at all interesting to look at it. If anything it was amusing to think of all the sheep in the art community enjoying this and thinking they were smart or cultured for it. It had absolutly zero impact on my life.
|
