Naked States

2000 documentary

Rating: 11/20

Plot: Spencer Tunick, artiste, travels America with the goal of photographing nudes in all fifty states. Art!

Part of the reason why I didn't like this was because of Spencer Tunick. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about the guy's demeanor rubbed me the wrong way. His "art" was a little too random, and I didn't like his photography anyway. As he asked a variety of people--men and women, conventionally attractive and less-conventionally attractive--to pose nude, he had this looky-at-me-giggle-giggle-I'm-an-artist attitude that I thought was intolerable. My favorite footage in the documentary was when Tunick went to a nude beach and figured he could boss everybody around while they were trying to enjoy themselves with naked beach bowling and other activities that ugly naked people do and then started whining when he wasn't getting his way. There was irony in his claims that he was somehow a savior for these people, that he was in some way liberating them from their fabric bondage while he was whining about them not doing exactly what he told them to do. I'm starting to believe that the less we know about and see or hear our artists, the better. I definitely saw far more of Spencer Tunick than I ever needed to see. Aside from all that, this isn't a good documentary anyway. It has the look and feel of your typical reality television show. I'm also annoyed that they left out Indiana because naked Hoosiers would definitely have bumped this up a couple points.