Cool School: How L.A. Learned to Love Modern Art (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:22
Fresh:20
Rotten:2
Average Rating:6.9/10
Consensus: A breezy and lively modern art documentary, revealing that LA is not a cultural wasteland when it comes to fine art.
Runtime: 86 mins
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Theatrical Release:16-08-2008
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... [More]
Starring: Ed Ruscha, Frank Gehry, Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell
Director: Morgan Neville
Reviews for Cool School: How L.A. Learned to Love Modern Art
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
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 2/5 |
The Cool School is a history of the LA art scene which will be most interesting for those who are involved in it. Full Review |
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 3.5/5 |
Occasionally too reverent, this remains an effective evocation of a vibrant and interesting art scene, not to mention a touching paean to lost youth. Full Review |
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3/6 |
Morgan Neville’s ‘The Cool School’ is a slickly packaged document of the burgeoning modern art scene in LA during the late ’50s and early ’60s which sadly submerges its fascinating subject matter in technical clutter and contrived set-ups. Full Review |
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3/5 |
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. Full Review |
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3/5 |
Breezy doc lives up to its title. Full Review |
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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. Full Review |
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3.5/5 |
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. Full Review |
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4/5 |
Sweeps you off your feet with quick-witted visuals and cleverly used archival footage. Full Review |
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Definitely proves that, contrary to certain opinions, Los Angeles is not a cultural wasteland where fine art is concerned. Full Review |
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7/10 |
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. Full Review |
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3/4 |
Thoughtful and thought-provoking. Full Review |
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2.5/4 |
Diverting. Full Review |
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3.5/5 |
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. Full Review |
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3/4 |
Cool School is a must for anyone interested in 20th century American art. Full Review |
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4/6 |
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. Full Review |
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A- |
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. Full Review |
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All told, and well told, this is essential history. Full Review |
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2/4 |
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. Full Review |
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3/4 |
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. Full Review |
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3.5/4 |
A lively film that doesn't linger too long on any one thought or with any one interviewee. Full Review |
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