+ Best Satire of the Year
 | |
| A funny, elegant poster for Jonathan Parker's (Untitled) |
(Untitled) is the fourth feature from co-writer-director Jonathan Parker (Bartleby (2001)). He has written it with Catherine DiNapoli (The Architect (2016)).
A co
ntrary avant-garde music composer gets professionally pummeled by his successful artist brother as he meets and falls for the gallery owner who sells his art and uses the proceeds to finance her experimental gallery.
Adam Goldberg (No Way Jose (2015)) is perfect as the dour protagonist, who makes compositions that involve kicking a bucket and rubbing a plastic dress. Marley Shelton (Planet Terror (2007)) is equally auspicious as the cool and ambitious but also likable gallery owner. Eion Bailey (Ray Donovan (2014), TV-series) is good as the brother whose commercial art is harmonious and colorful to look at but doesn't speak much to the characters (and me and maybe also my fellow audiences?) In smaller parts, Lucy Punch (Dinner for Schmucks (2010)) as a sweet clarinet player, Vinnie Jones (Throwdown (2014)) as an exponent of the adulated contemporary male artist and Ptolemy Slocum (Rock Jocks (2012)) as a weird minimalist are all good.
There's much good to be said of the film, whose title in Denmark and Sweden - A New York Love Affair - takes some of the edge from the film's look and also isn't a very inventive or appropriate title.
 |
| Marley Shelton in Jonathan Parker's (Untitled) |
From the artful intro credit sequence to the film's end, it feels like a perfectly controlled film, not one in which any unexpected magic seems to seep in but a clever satire of the contemporary art world. It will especially appeal to audiences interested in art, artists and the art world. It poses questions of our definition of art and having some laughs at the expense of the whimsical art created by some today, while itself also seeming to be entirely for an inclusive approach to the issue.
Someone at one point in the film asks gallery owner Shelton how to distinguish between entertainment and art, and she gives a sharp answer that I'll let round off the review here:
"Entertainment never posed a problem it couldn't solve."
Related posts:
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Unknown
Box office: 230k $ (North America)
= Unknown (likely a huge flop)
[(Untitled) was released October 23 and runs 96 minutes. Parker was inspired to the project from his own experiences as a sound artist in his youth and from his immediate family, which counts an art collector mother and an art student son. The film was shot in New York. It had a small release in the US, making 18k $ its opening weekend, and also played in Finland and the Netherlands. It was likely made for around 1 mil. $ and so theatrically looks like a huge flop. (Untitled) is fresh at 65 % at Rotten Tomatoes with a 6 critical average.]
What do you think of (Untitled)?
No comments:
Post a Comment