High Art (1998) Reviewed by Larry McGillicuddy
**1/2 (of 4) Directed by Lisa Cholodenko Starring Ally Sheedy, Radha Mitchell, Patricia Clarkson
When reviewing low budget films, critics often tend to be too forgiving. They sometimes forgive obvious technical flaws because it's an independent film. Well I don't care what kind of film it is. If it has technical flaws, then I can't ignore that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying a technically proficent film is automatically superior to a low budget effort. I wouldn't take the slick, bug budget FX laden Armageddon over the atrociously acted poorly filmed Clerks mind you. Because Clerks was damn funny and Armageddon was a mind numbing bore. But I would never call Clerks a great film, just a good one.
Anyways, High Art is a film from first time director Lisa Cholodenko. Radha Mitchell stars as an art magazine editor who runs into upstairs neighbor Syd (Ally Sheedy), who is a high profile photographer a while back and then suddenly disappeared. The movie is about Syd's attempts to break free from her dangerous social life, Mitchell's attempts to showcase Syd photography once more, and how the two of them fall in love.
High Art has been praised by many critics and it's easy to see why. It features two very strong performances from Ally Sheedy and Radha Mitchell, and it's an indie film with a distinct personal feel to it. It's also at times erotic, heartbreaking, and even ocasionally humorous. But the film does have some technical problems and poor performances that detract fromt he quality and a fatal flaw in it's concluding scenes that prevents me from recommending it.
One of my main problems witht he film was the character of Greta. As played by Patricia Clarkson, she is one of the most annoying supporting characters in recent memory. Greta is a german actress who is Syd's lover. She is the dark side that Syd must break away from. Unfortunately, there is very little credibility in their relationship to begin with. I assume Clarkson's slurred speech and odd mannerisms were intentionally annoying. I still hated them.
Even worse than Clarkson are the numerous random supporting characters in the film. While Clarkson was extremely annoying, at least she was doing something. The rest of the supporting cast is filled with amateurs that would have trouble getting roles in a high school production. Most of them don't even have one dimension to speak of and they wander around the screen like zombies. Where is Tom Savini when you need him?
Then in the conclusion comes the final breaking point for me. There is a shot at a crucial emotional moment that instead of focusing on Radha Mitchell, which would seem obvious, focuses on one of the zombie supporting characters. I simply don't get it. Was Cholodenko trying to put us in Radha's shoes in that moment? Not a good time for an odd stylistic touch. Were we supposed to understand the pain of the random supporting guy better than we would understand Radha Mitchell's? Whatever the reasoning, it's a gaping flaw that ultimately kills the film.
Don't get me wrong though. This is far from a terrible film. As I said, the two lead performances are wonderful. Mitchell displays a rare natural presence in front of the camera. I found her performance to be quite compelling. Ally Sheedy is quite credible as the drug addled, depressed Syd. Her performance isn't quite as compelling, but it's still very good. And the two of them develop a strong chemistry together. I would've preffered more of them and less of the annoying Greta and her band of zombies.
Larry McGillicuddy - The Cinemaniac http://members.xoom.com/lmcgill/movpage.htm
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