Basquiat

Rating:
Summary: A great cinematic debut for Schnabel
Review: BASQUIAT is a wonderful film about one artist made by another.
Even if both of them are overstated and hyped up, they must be heard. This film gives us a chance to experience their artistic vision.

The film is visually beautiful. Wright's performance is subtle yet precise. After seeing some documentary footage, I could hardly tell the difference between the real Basquiat and the actor. So, bravo!!! The rest of the cast is at their usual best.

Although this film focuses on New York art scene and on Basquiat as an artist, it also raises serious issues without being preachy. For instance, when asked during his first exhibition whether he considers himself a black artist, Basquiat (who was of a mixed racial heritage) replies to the man: "Do you consider yourself a writer or a white writer?" I think that sums up Basquiat's views about race and about art: he was an artist first and everything else second.

I hope Schnabel keeps on directing.

Rating:
Summary: impressing, in many ways
Review: A beautiful biography(?) placed in a surreal atmosphere. I started watching this movie during an early breakfast after a night of no sleep. The perfect state of mind for a movie like this! I couldn't wait to get back from work to see the rest of it. And I have watched it many times since.

Obviously made by an artist, the story does not tell itself, but has to be felt by compiling the scenes. Or that's how I experience it, anyway.

Jeffrey Wright is impressing. He made me want to know more about Basquiat, as well as himself as an actor. I'm certainly looking forward to watching 'Boycott' as well as to reading about Jean Michel Basquiat!

Captivating.

Rating:
Summary: Art/Design Student Alert
Review: This film is a must for all students interested in design.
The use of color to communicate thought, emotion, time
and place is exquisite. Superimposed images, used throughout
the film, give us entry to Basquiat's mind and emtotional
being while reality swirls around him.The rhythm and the
blocking of place give rise to the form of the film. Not
to be missed by any student of time based graphics.
Highly recommended.

Lagniappe:
Through a door opened slightly, a glimpse of the New York
art scene can be had in all its generosity and selfishness.
Characters abound and personal pocket art museums that
are studios surface.The script reflects an insider's
personal perspective of Basquiat's story.

Rating:
Summary: Surfing through Warhol's '80s
Review: Painter Julian Schnabel made his film directing debut with his impressionistic biography of his late friend and fellow '80s Warhol hanger-on, Jean-Michel Basquiat. A charismatic, young heroin addict, Basquiat started out as a graffiti artist who called himself SAMO (as in samo bulls--t) and, depending on where your aesthetic tastes fall, his success represented either a great rebirth of artistic orgininality OR yet another sign that the American art scene was becoming a victim of trendiness. The same, of course, was said of Schnabel at the same time. Luckily for myself as a viewer of this film, I'm in the former camp. For the latter group or the growing number of people who see, "I don't know nothing about art but I like what I see," as the height of critical thinking, this film probably isn't for them.

Told in a freeform fashion, Schnabel's vision of Basquiat's life is rather uneven. The story is occasionally rather muddled (Basquiat's rise from homeless drug addict to prodigal Warhol son seems to come out of nowhere) and plotwise, Schnabel is rather conventional in his structure -- Basquiat reaches the heights of fame and forgets all of his former friends before being redeemed at the end. (His own eventual death of a heroin overdose isn't shown beyond a title card at the end credits -- though the film strongly hints it was related to his own depression concerning the death of Andy Warhol.) However, the film is also blessed with occasional flashes of genius that make this a film that is worth watching. Not surprisingly, Schnabel has a strong visual sense and he uses his limited budget to his advantage, capturing a strange sort of grimy fantasy world. Some of his enigmatic images are haunting. Basquiat continually sees an image of a lone figure surfing whenever he looks up to the sky. Why does this child of New York have this surfer in his head? No explanation is given or really needed. The surfer just happens to be there, just as Basquiat's artistic talent just happened to be there -- unexplainable but definitely real.

Schnabel also proves himself to be a capable director of actors. The film is full of cameos from the actors who always seem to show up in independent, art cinema and at first sight, the cast list looks a little self-conciously hip. At the same time, the celebrity casting somehow works brilliantly. Early on in the film, Basquiat stares through a window at the Warhol crowd standing in an art gallery. That "crowd" is made up of David Bowie, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, and several other recognizable faces and its somewhat jarring to see all of these familiar actors gathered together -- just as it was probably jarring for Basquiat to stare at the "icons" of his world. Plus, for the most part, these actors all give strong performances and don't just coast on their image. Bowie, especially, surprised me as Warhol. Its not a deep performance but at the same time, he never allows the artist to become a fey caricature. Parker Posey is wonderfully haughty as gallery owner Mary Boone while unusually restrained work comes from unexpected sources like Dennis Hopper, Paul Bartel, and Willem DaFoe. Christopher Walken has a wonderful cameo as a pretentious interviewer and nicely satirizes his own intense image. Of the supporting cast, the four strongest performances are given by Clare Forlani (who has never been allowed to be a strong and sexy as she is here as Basquiat's lover), Michael Wincott and a pre-traffic Benecio Del Toro (playing early friends of Basquiat -- Del Toro especially has some hilarious monologues early on), and Gary Oldman who is basically playing Julian Schnabel and brings a wonderfully arrogant glee to his scenes. (A highlight, late in the film, is the image of Oldman dancing with his daughter in front of one of Schnabel's trademark epic canvasses).

The best performance and the linchpin that holds the film together comes from Geoffrey Wright who found his first taste of fame playing the doomed Jean-Michel Basquiat. Wright, quite simply, is a revelation. He brings a touch of childlike vulnerablity to a character who isn't always extremely sympathetic and manages to add a much needed cohesion to Schnabel's uneven composition. His scenes following Warhol's death are especially haunting. Much as Schanbel's second film introduced many of us to Javeir Bardem, Basquiat serves as an introduction to Wright as well. When Wright sees his surfer, you don't wonder what a surfer's doing above the New York skyline as much as you share Basquiat's (and Wright's) excitement at what possibilities the future might hold.

Rating:
Summary: dive into basquiats world
Review: after i watched this movie the first time,i rewound it and then watched it over and over again! through this movie, i fell in love with jean michel basquiat. or maybe i should say, i fell in love with his work and his way of working.
this movie tries in a very sensitive way to capture the most important aspects of jean michel's life and present those aspects to the audience. it must have been hard to do this movie without destroying any of basquiat's almost magical charisma.
so,..anyone who loves art with all of its varieties: you gotta see this movie. and try to not only watch it but inhale it,...try to feel it ! its a great movie ! worth seeing,....DEFINETELY worth owning !

Rating:
Summary: I really dug this Movie
Review: i really dug this Movie.after getting a Basquiat Book years back I really dug His Stuff so when I found out the film was coming I got hyped.very Creative.

Rating:
Summary: Deep movie about a shallow art scene.
Review: Basquiat (Julian Schnabel, 1996)

Schnabel has made two films in five years. I'm still wondering why the man hasn't yet been immortalized. Less talented directors have gotten stars on the Walk of Fame for less accomplishment than Schnabel showed with his second film, Before Night Falls, alone. His first, Basquiat, is damned close to being as good, and yet it fell almost completely below the radar of American cinema upon its release, despite a stable of talent so broad it's almost ludicrous.

Schnabel (played in the film by Gary Oldman, incidentally-- and Schnabel's real-life family plays Oldman's family in the film. heh.) gives us the story of Jean-Michel Basquiat, one of the brightest lights of New York's avant-garde art movement in the seventies and eighties before his 1988 overdose. Basquiat himself is played by the always-engaging Jeffrey Wright (recently seen giving Sam Jackson trouble in _Shaft_), and while the film never fails to center on Basquiat himself, Wright's brilliantly low-key performance seems almost a backdrop for a slew of A-list actors in minor roles (Willem Dafoe, Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Tatum O'Neal, etc.) and up-and-coming stars who have since gone on to eclipse even Wright (Benecio del Toro, Courtney Love, Vincent Gallo, Linda Larkin, Caire Forlani, Michael Badalucco, et al.). But the show is truly stolen by David Bowie as (a believable, believe it or not) Andy Warhol. Bowie doesn't do a whole lot of acting, but when he does, he's usually wonderful at it (viz. The Hunger, Christiane F., etc.). He takes it to new heights here, and Bowie and Wright give a sense of the friendship between Warhol and Basquiat that does far more in far less screen time than most buddy movies could dream about. Of course, that may be because Schnabel, an artist himself, is a virtuoso at conveying the shallowness of the New York art scene. What's more, he manages to do so without turning Basquiat into a shallow film. Not an easy task, by any means.

Fantastic all the way around. **** 1/2

Rating:
Summary: A WANNA BE WHO BECAME...
Review: Artist Julian Schnabel in his directorial debut captures the essence of the avant garde art world of the late nineteen seventies through the eighties. His screenplay focuses on Jean- Michel Basquiat, a street person who started his career as an artist known for his memorable graffiti. Basquiat later catapulted to fame as the first African American artist to break out into the lily white New York art world, becoming pals with the likes of Andy Warhol. His struggle for acceptance and his inner demons ultimately proved to be too much for him, however, and at twenty eight, the world of Basquiat came to a stunning conclusion from an overdose of heroin.

The role of Basquiat is deliciously and memorably played by Jeffrey Wright who portrays Basquiat as a fey sort of soul. His stunning portrayal of the artist is neatly counterbalanced by the earthy performance of a young Benicio Del Toro who plays Basquiat's friend. David Bowie is perfectly cast as an other worldly Andy Warhol. Dennis Hopper and Courtney Love also give compelling performances, as does Gary Oldham.

This is a quirky, surprisingly good film in the best indie tradition. It is quintessential New York in feel. Native New Yorkers will know what I mean. Others will simply have to take my word for it. Like the city, the film has something for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Stupid
Review: This movie is pointless and dumb. Gary Oldman is the only person in the whole movie that appears to have any acting competence, and that isn't enough to save the film. The character of Basquit is a low-life. Most of the other characters in this filthy cocroach of a film are so anoying, that by the time the film was half over, I was hoping that a very rabid Cujo would show up from somewhere and liven things up a little. At least then there would have been a particle of a plot to follow. My advice is save your money and buy a video that is actually worth a few dimes.

Rating:
Summary: Still a sleeper hit
Review: This movie, aside from making me fall in love with New York again, is worth watching for three knockout performances: Jeffery Wright as the title character, Benicio Del Toro as his friend, and David Bowie as a surpsisingly good, kookie Andy Wharhol.

The movie just captures New York so well. Everyone seems to have their own agendas there, but it's a place where a guy like Basquiat, who lived in a box for awhile in Central Park, could rise to glory. It's a good story about his rise and fall, although the movie wavers a bit toward the end. It slips a bit when it decides to be so blatantly over-dramatic about this bum-turned-artist's demise.

By the way, has Del Toro ever had a bad movie role? This guy really knows how to pick 'em, and you'll be sad when he disappears out of the entire middle of the film when Basquiat becomes hot stuff. Del Toro's character is a nice reminder that friends should be valued more than fame, even if they are a bit eccentric. I've seen better work from Hopper and Oldman, but they do a nice job of rounding out a pretty solid movie that no one seems to have seen.

Any way, the movie is worth a rental at the very least. The ending is a bit schmaltzy, but you should be sufficiently wrapped up in Wright's acting by then. Some will still find it depressing, or worse, annoying. 3.5 stars (but I'll be kind and round up to 4)