Celebrate the Great Indoors, Movies on Art

If staying alone in a room with the shades drawn is akin to paradise and the blue light of the cathode tube warms your insides, skip the blockbuster fare at the cineplex, save 10$ and checkout dvds at the library. I recommend you try a movie without Brad-JaleenaVaughneston. Something that may enlighten, inspire or just plain creep you out.

The first recommendation comes with an old review I did upon its release. The film, The Devil and Daniel Johnston...

Daniel Johnston, lo-fi hero, a creepy Bob Dylan and legendary Austin eccentric takes front and center in this documentary that moves through a troubled life in straight narrative fashion. Amazing to me is the amount of raw footage, photography and audio there is on this marginal character. Daniel made many Super-8 films and carried a tape recorder with him everywhere and we are the beneficiaries. The film almost feels like a neighborhood friend calling me over to check out all of this stuff he found, and we lie around on the floor of his room for hours listening to strange music and looking at wild drawings of Captain America and Casper The Friendly Ghost. I really enjoyed this film, although this is my thing. I love stuff like this. The only downside for me was the constant fawning by some people over Daniel. It made me question their motives. You could do a drinking game with the number of times Daniel is compared to Bob Dylan. And you get a sense that Daniel's handlers don't want you to think of him as an outsider artist. Come on. That's what he is. Look at the drawings and tell me if you see a development of ideas or a self awareness that people on the other side of madness have. I wonder if some of these people that promote outsiders are just barkers for a traveling freak show.

other Films on Art 'n' Artists:

• How to Draw a Bunny (For his final art piece, Ray Johnson allegedly kills himself.)
• Crumb (Creepy, Funny, Unnerving, Inspiring)
• Art School Confidential (First 20 mins. or so, are very funny. After that, eject disc.)
• The Shape of Things (Paul Rudd becomes Rachel Weisz's contemporary art piece)
• Pollock
• Fear, Anxiety, and Depression (Todd Solondz's first film)
• Lust for Life (Kirk Douglas plays a golden age of Hollywood style Van Gogh)
• Who the F*$& is Jackson Pollock?
• The Short Films of David Lynch (Makes me want to pick up my dv cam and go make Surrealist films. Ill just make a sandwich instead.)
• Frida
• Kurt and Courtney (See Cobain's art!)

Now go draw the curtains and shut the world out.