4K RESTORATION / BLACK AND WHITE VERSION
Jean-Michel Basquiat transformed from a street kid to a painter who electrified the 1980s New York scene—and the rest is (art) history. His visionary blend of expressionism, pop art, and the radical new aesthetics of hip-hop and graffiti propelled him to international fame before his untimely demise. Julian Schnabel’s stunning directorial debut charts Basquiat’s dizzying rise and fall with an insider’s eye for the authentic textures of the downtown demimonde, as well as a fellow postmodernist’s penchant for the dreamlike and the surreal. Jeffrey Wright’s brilliant, early-career performance provides penetrating insight into the artist’s creative passions and personal demons. Crowned by David Bowie as a pitch-perfect Andy Warhol, Basquiat’s supporting cast is a murderers’ row of Hollywood legends and art lovers (among them, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Benicio del Toro, Parker Posey, Christopher Walken, and Willem Dafoe) lending their matchless talents to this high point of nineties independent cinema—an intimate elegy for a once-in-a-generation artistic phenomenon.
The strength of this film consists precisely in not seeking to be more of an “artist” than the model: Jean-Michel Basquiat. A painter as recognized as Schnabel shows such humility, which is precisely what gives the film greater emotional force.