High Art (1998)

After the trash of the past twenty or so years -- titles withheld to protect the incompetent -- someone finally makes a movie with a lesbian love angle that not only works, but shines. An exquisite performance by Ally Sheedy highlights this haunting study of a woman and the culture which ensnares her. A solid plot, likable -- if not perfect -- characters give flesh and blood to this dark character study. Added kudos to Patricia Clarkson; she took a character who tread the fine line between sympathetic and just plain pathetic and made Greta a complex, but not confusing nor inconsistent, woman. Well done, all around!

Fmovies: I skipped this in the theatres and shouldn't have. I am completely haunted by Ally Sheedy's performance since seeing this fine film on video. Riveting.

We are on 21st century. For past 5000 Years Women's place in societal concept badly needed to improve. It was so obvious that men who had always wanted control it for the interest of themselves. We need to let the entire society including children to understand this important issue as well.

I definitely have enjoyed and praise director's character focused cinematography enabled by excellent acting skills of the two captivating casts portraying honest sense of humanity. I am strongly hoping that blessing days to come really soon for women lovers where they do not have to use drug or alcohol to cope with the still occasionally cruel world. It made me so sad that Lucy died before the two women to have chance to enjoy the rewards of their work. However at least I felt better that there were no scene of violence nor intimidation against women lovers

The time has come for women to re-evaluate the societal concept of women's place for their own good, success and happiness. There are many areas women can perform significantly better than men including Art and Science. It is unfortunate that men has denied women to explore their potentials and opportunities all the way along until just recently. It is not nothing wrong for some women to totally ignore men and find their potential of their own amongst the exclusively own sex considering never-ending societal prejudice against them

It is not accurate to say that homosexuality has been forbidden in most of cultures amongst Eurasian continent. In the beginning of Etruscan and Chinese civilisation, women were often valued less than a household animal. Hence women never had their right of their own to love who they desired It was particularly true in ancient Chinese Empire. When a woman was found next to any man of high birth, She was immediately beheaded accused of being a parasite or vermin and replaced by a catamite. That inhuman mentality still seems to be intact with some Asian men's mind. Fortunately the replacing women with catamites did not occur in Japan, but all Japanese have committed similar crimes down the history during the mediaeval age discarding new born female infants in favour of male infants. Truth is that privileged men exercised homosexuality rather openly but women never had enough rights of exercising no matter what they preferred to do. Israel and China both have a long history of Phallocentric homosexuality goes back about to 2000BC and 1600BC respectively In fact they do have a long history of homosexuality following NearEast, Greece, Middle East, and India. I believe that the tradition spreadded via Silk Road from Etruria (ancient Tuscany) branched off to Israel and Egypt. then to Sparta, then Turk, then India and to China. However, those were Phallocentric homosexuality including most distasteful and bizarre catamites. In contrast to contiguous Eurasian continent, Japan has had long history of Parthenocentric homosexuality amongst noble born court attendants and they developed highly intellectual feminist scholar of their own. Contrarily to common beliefs, before the paternalistic authoritarianism ever had any chance to come in effect in Japan, there were four contiguous centuries, a long historic period called the Heï An Era (794 - 1185 A.D. meaning the time for peace and tranquility) where contemporary feminist scholars including art, poetry, and literature flourished in Japanese Imperial Court. It is often considered the peak of the Japanese civilization. I personally view societal harm from Phallocentric homosexuality is s

High Art fmovies. 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.

High Art is an absorbing study of dependency, both chemical and emotional. Sheedy plays Lucy Berliner, a famed photographer who hasn't published in ten years. She's whiled away the years living in New York with her German girlfriend, both heroin addicts. Not the strung-out mainlining Panic in Needle Park types, but more refined; they toot more than they shoot.

Along comes a young assistant editor of an art magazine who first wants to advance her career by cajoling Lucy to begin working again, and later falls in love with her.

The movie shines in its matter-of-fact treatment of living and loving among New York's new Bohemians. Well worth the rental, and I hope this signals Sheedy's return to film...she's great.

None of the characters in this film are the stereotypes you might expect, and a few of the performances are simply magnificent. Patricia Clarkson in particular probably won't be an Oscar contender, but certainly should be. The two leads are also played to perfection, and I enjoyed the film far more than I had anticipated. Definitely should not have been relegated to the art-house circuit.