High Art (1998)Visually and sonically beautiful. The acting is wonderful - Patricia Clarkson as fizzled-out Fassibinder actress is hilarious and tragic. A performance that balances camp and the finiteness of fame. Radha Mitchell and Ally Sheedy's roles are a constrast between the classic male-female archetype - Radha is the demure soft-spoken "teenager" while Ally plays the angst-ridden tough guy role. Writer-director Cholodenko is successful at playing off sexual ambivalence against characters who don't have it all figured out. I loved the little attention given to Radha's supervisor, he's character is the kind of sneaky boss we'd love to smack over the head. For all its mood and fluidity, the events of the film's last act feel hokey and staged. "Laurel Canyon" showed director Lisa Cholodenko's maturation as an auteur. Her recurring themes of "fucking up," sexual repression and social misogny were better realised in it, with true integrity. ak
