The Cool School is neither as lively nor as complete as it could be, but as an introduction to modern art, it's a fine freshman course.
Comment
06/20/08
Cool School: How L.A. Learned to Love Modern Art (2008)
95 %
Reviews Counted: 19 Fresh: 18 Rotten:1 Average Rating: 7.2/10
Runtime: 86 mins
Synopsis: This documentary explores the embryonic L.A. art scene in the 1950s and '60s. It focuses on the Ferus Gallery, which helped bring together a group of visionary artists who were soon catapulted into national stars. Interviews and vintage footage fill out this story of competitive... [More]
Reviews
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Veteran documentarist Morgan Neville’s illustrated history of the painters and sculptors associated with Venice’s Ferus Gallery (1957–1967) is at once lively and analytical.
05/22/08
Makes the case that there's more than basket weaving and freeway driving going on in the seedbed of originality we know as the Great Basin of L.A.
05/21/08
Sweeps you off your feet with quick-witted visuals and cleverly used archival footage.
04/04/08
Definitely proves that, contrary to certain opinions, Los Angeles is not a cultural wasteland where fine art is concerned.
04/01/08
Surf's up in Southern California as the modern art world invades Nixonville and Reagan City in the 1950s. A fascinating look at the start of something big: modern art in Los Angeles.
03/28/08
The Cool School, a breezy, lively documentary about a thin slice of the Los Angeles fine art scene in the 1950s, is easy on the eyes, and the ears too.
03/28/08
Top Critic
Cool School is a must for anyone interested in 20th century American art.
03/28/08
Top Critic
Smart, jazzy and unafraid to deflate egos, Morgan Neville’s fast-paced, finely critical study makes for a pungent intro to a movement now esteemed as a key alternative to the New York AbEx stranglehold.
03/27/08
Documentarian Morgan Neville takes an appropriately lively, left-field approach to The Cool School's eye-opening history of the Beat-era Left Coast art scene -- a lesser-known chapter in the story of American modern art.
03/26/08
Largely avoids sharply delineated portraits, with its focus on the scene at the expense of individuals, ultimately resulting in a documentary that doesn't rise above the functional.
03/25/08
No one emerges very well defined from this historical shuffle, but those who know the artists' works, or names such as Hopps and Blum, but have never heard them speak, will find The Cool School absorbing and informative.
03/21/08
A lively film that doesn't linger too long on any one thought or with any one interviewee.
02/22/08
It is a fascinating journey through a piece of art history, the full impact of which may be yet to come.
02/22/08
What The Cool School does so well, through its color accents and black-and-white photography...is impart a sense of discovery.
02/22/08
Top Critic1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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