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Cremaster 3 (2002)
Runtime: 3 hrs 2 mins
Synopsis: Giant cavemen stalk the meek through a rear projection landscape. Driverless automobiles smash a predecessor into a chrome mouth piece. Such is the wordless world of Matthew Barney's CREMASTER series. The five-part epic culminates, oddly enough, in CREMASTER 3, one of a myriad of... Giant cavemen stalk the meek through a rear projection landscape. Driverless automobiles smash a predecessor into a chrome mouth piece. Such is the wordless world of Matthew Barney's CREMASTER series. The five-part epic culminates, oddly enough, in CREMASTER 3, one of a myriad of peculiarities in the avant-garde series that moved from the museum circuit to packed art houses. Intrigue leads to mayhem for taskmasters toiling in a highly stylized Chrysler building. At the forefront is a blue collar man (sculptor Richard Serra) whose work in the immaculate building is rewarded with a horse muzzling, knocking his teeth out. A bizarre operation is performed, replacing his jaw with a chrome implant. While this proletariat's innards seep out, a wayward savage (Barney) appears. Upon proving his worth, he also is bestowed chrome, a medal. A violent conclusion hammers home the idea of man's fruitless search during a chaotic Guggenheim hootenanny complete with a kick line, a nude cheetah lady (double amputee Aimee Mullins), and a war between punk bands Agnostic Front and Murphy's Law. This narrative of Barney's three-hour series finale is less important than juxtaposition and iconography in a film obsessed with medallions, triangular blocks, and the pentagonal Chrysler logo. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Richard Serra, Aimee Mullins, Nesrin Karanouh, Matthew Barney, Peter Badalamenti
Screenwriter: Matthew Barney
Producer: Matthew Barney, Barbara Gladstone
Composer: Jonathan Belper
Reviews
Extremely accomplished filmmaking that's only in need of an editor. And perhaps a coherent story.
the longest and last of 'the Cremaster Cycle' is also Barney's crowning masterpiece.
Attempting to sum up the scope of Matthew Barney’s epic in a few words is like trying to shove the history of existence through a scrotum-shaped pinhole.
It is either an unparalleled opportunity to witness the work of an artist proclaimed by some the 'most important American artist of his generation.' Or an obligation to witness the work of the artist etc., etc.
If you're hoping for a movie that makes sense, you're in for 3 very frustrating hours, it jumps from one bizarre 'performance piece' to another.
Trapped in a seat while the three-hour Cremaster 3 goes on (and on), you feel more like a prisoner than a participant.
You might doze off from time to time, but what you see when you wake up has the potential to scar you for life.
The emperor has no clothes...The good news is that the picture has an intermission, but the bad news is that it resumes after it.
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