2007 documentaryRating: 15/20 (Jen: 14/20)
Plot: Marla is a four-year-old girl living with her family in New York. She just might be a painting prodigy, an abstract artistic genius whose work has been compared to Pollock. Or she could be the tool of an ambitious parent wanting to fool the art world and make some money. As her work creates a stir amongst art collectors, that money does start rolling in. But when 60 Minutes comes along, questions about the true artist behind the work emerge.
Good companion piece for the Who the Bleep Is Jackson Pollock? documentary I watched earlier this year. Both raise similar questions about the hypocrisy within the art world and about what makes modern art good art. The subject of Marla is approached objectively (in fact, the director seemed to be doing this all as a human interest story until the 60 minutes expose) and there's enough here to start conversation and/or argument although Jen and I both think we know exactly what's going on here. Interesting story, and I did like a lot of the paintings regardless of who painted them.
2 comments:
This was another Blockbuster rental for me while I was employed there and the "rentals" were FREE...
I watched this right before I watched "Who the F@&$ is Jackson Pollack!?!" It was really interesting learning what Pollack was about and what it takes to 'recreate' his voice in the art world. I liked this doc better than the "Who the F*&#" doc because the cynicism is not there (or there's less of it). No one's a villain; it's just an honest profile piece.
I didn't like when the girl got her own gallery and the marketing began. It took the purity and innocence out of what she was doing.
Yeah, 'Who the Bleep' kind of annoyed me. I didn't like the woman. And I agree with you about the purity and innocence going away at a certain point in this. Of course, I subscribe to the theory that the best art doesn't have any audience at all.
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