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High Art | Year: 1998 Actors/Actresses: - Ally Sheedy - Radha Mitchell - Patricia Clarkson Superbly subtle. In 'the age of indies', where we currently find ourselves, a common technique is to heavy hand the viewer, scaring him with the harsh realities of some off-beat lifestyle. And all those possibilities exist in High Art, where the real grunge of lower Manhattan is briefly exposed, yet here, the filmmaker chooses to seduce us with it, rather than hit us over the head. Ally Sheedy does a good job as druggie social misfit, Lucy Berliner. Lucy's been able to lead a life devoid of any traditional responsibility, choosing instead to hang out with a sub-culture of drug motivated homosexual and asexual miscreants, where days and years pass by faster than a paper calendar unfurling in a Frank Capra movie. That she might jump start a promising career as a photographer under the bright-eyed prodding of young Syd (Radha Mitchell) is not surprising, it's a familiar refrain. And that Lucy seduces Syd is also predictable. Where the movie does surprise is the relaxed way in which it delivers it's message, and, although Sheedy and Mitchell are both very good, for my money the movie is damn near stolen by Patricia Clarkson, who is brilliant in every scene she plays. If you remember her as Ted Hoffman's caring, intelligent wife in year one of 'Murder One' you'll really appreciate what a marvelous actress she is. I came in expecting to dislike the movie, and left quite pleased. I definitely recommend. Lesbo druggies exposed! Just kidding. Actually this is very good film whose only fault is a tendency to take itself a little too seriously at times. Ally Sheedy plays Lucy, a lesbian photographer with a serious drug problem, but an even more serious inability to cope with the rapacious New York City commercial art scene. Lucy struts and poses her cocaine-trim limbs while her mind stoops to degeneracy. She is controlled by the deep-throated German has-been actress, Greta (Patricia Clarkson) her long-time lover, and by her own falling-down habits. The mercantile world is too much for her pure artist's nature, and so she forsakes it for the haze... Radha Mitchell plays Syd, an assistant editor at Frame, a glitzy photo art mag, who is seduced by Lucy and by her own need to succeed. Gabriel Mann plays James, her boyfriend, who can see the handwriting on the wall, and splits. Sheedy is outstanding and Mitchell is very good, but what makes this an intriguing and worth-while film is the uncompromising eye of Director Lisa Cholodenko, who depicts the sad, dreary NYC "high art" drug scene without a trace of sentimentality or any hidden sexist agenda. True, the women in the film are vastly more interesting than the men, who are merely passive appendages, of little notice. But that is because those in focus-Lucy, Syd and Greta-are strong people who shape their own lives, for better or for worse. Notice that the hangers-on, on the couch, male or female, are shallow and empty regardless of sex. The lesbian sexuality displayed seemed authentic but somehow limited-although, how would I know? Maybe it's the code. The dependency passing for love between Lucy and Greta also struck me as real. Syd's loss of innocence was the main point, however, and it was not her sexual seduction that did it, but her discovery of her own very complex nature. The look on the face of the receptionist reading Dostoyevski after Syd appeared on the cover of the magazine, her hungry interest and then Syd's realization of being looked at in a different way, was just a marvelous piece of cinema incisively rendered. Brillant A truly excellent film - a tragic story beautifully told. Ally Sheedy has never been better. I was mesmerized by the accuracy by which the world of addiction/drugs and the world of women loving women were portrayed. This is a deep movie worthy of a doctoral thesis. Buy High Art at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on High Art Search with the Priority Search Engine on High Art This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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