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Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child is a respectfully vivid, accurate, and entertaining homage to a painter who led a radical life and left an ambitious body of work behind after his premature death. The film opens with 1986 footage of Basquiat being interviewed in a hotel room by friends Becky Johnston and director Tamra Davis. For Basquiat fans, this film will prove essential viewing to flesh out an understanding of downtown New York's art scene in the 1980s, and to see Basquiat's pivotal role in this. While Downtown 81 is an awesome fictionalized portrait of Basquiat and his crew, and Julian Schnabel's feature Basquiat serves as tribute via Schnabel's dramatic artistic interpretation, Radiant Child offers the best possible documentary coverage of Basquiat's triumph and demise. This feature-length film, constructed after Davis unearthed her 10-years-buried Basquiat footage to make a 20-minute short, then buried that another 10 years because of her strong wish to avoid exploitation, contains so much footage of Basquiat painting, partying, and being his charismatic self that one trusts it immediately. Additionally, Davis has interviewed every affiliated gallerist, among them Diego Cortez, Larry Gagosian, Bruno Bischofberger, Tony Shafrazi, Annina Nosei, and Jeffrey Deitch, not to mention all of Basquiat's surviving close friends, including Schnabel, Fab 5 Freddy, Glenn O'Brien, Maripol, and Thurston Moore. The film, organized chronologically to chart Basquiat's move out of Brooklyn to Manhattan, his beginnings as an itinerant street artist named Samo, his rise to gallery stardom, and his struggles at the end, marks time by showing paintings throughout that commemorate moments in Basquiat's life. While the film obviously ends on a melancholy note as a warning about sudden fame and fortune, this film is ultimately more than a documentary about one man. It is a well-made testament, from the actual participants' perspectives, about what conspired in New York to allow Basquiat to shine. For viewers who recall those times, it may feel nostalgic; for viewers who glorify 1980s New York, this film will solidify New York's greatness; viewers who are artists may identify most, as one experiences a glimpse of a New York lifestyle that has come and gone. Radiant Child is not only a riveting story but a valuable archival resource, yet another fantastic release from the stellar distributor, Arthouse Films. --Trinie Dalton
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
26 of 26 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Strips away the mystique and captures Basquiat the man behind the growing myth, Jun 12 2010
By Andy Orrock - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (DVD)
We saw Tamra Davis' Basquiat documentary at the 2010 Dallas International Film Festival. For those of us who've seen and enjoyed Julian Schnabel's very good 1996 film Basquiat (featuring an outstanding turn by Jeffrey Wright in the title role), Davis' work is a good companion piece. For those of you who've not seen Schnabel's film, "The Radiant Child" serves as a good intro to both Basquiat's work and to the man who laid behind the ever-growing myth.Davis was a friend and contemporary of Jean-Michel Basquiat. She had the stroke of fortune (and the insight) to record a series of interviews with him at the height of his art-world popularity. Though the production value of those interviews is relatively poor, they're fascinating and serve as the core of the film. They pierce the aura of Basquiat the artist and growing legend to reveal his inherent fragility, his soft-spoken nature and the increasing burden of living up to the 'Basquiat' mystique/brand he created.
The other interviews painstakingly compiled by Davis add flavor and flesh out the re-telling, but it's Basquiat's own words and haunting image that will stick with you. I especially liked Basquiat's comment that not a single line or stroke in his works was by accident. This is backed up by one of the interviewees who noted the immediate appeal of Basquiat's work: that he had a unique hand, i.e., one which crafted a line that could only be produced by him. Davis also does a great job producing tales and evidence of the artist's prodigious work ethic and output. In his comet-like career, he produced over 1,500 pieces of work. Davis captures compelling tales of friends and clients showing up at his apartment and finding every surface - walls, refrigerator, other appliances - filled with imagery from his fervent brain.
36 of 48 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
This is a Loving Valentine, But Little More, Aug 4 2010
By Natalie Cladt - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (DVD)
"Jean-Michael Basquiat: The Radiant Child" has the look of a scrappy documentary you might see on PBS' "Independent Lens." Sit down interviews, good archival footage, nice use of music and so on. But the more you watch - beyond being tortured by the truly horrific sound editing in this film - the more you have to wonder, is this really the truth or a tepid whitewash? After watching the film all the way through, I'd go 60/40 with tepid whitewash tipping the balance. The most serious problem with this film is that major parts of Basquiat's life that likely informed his art - his serious drug addiction which killed him at 27, the racism he experienced in the 80s art world, his clear-eyed and brazen ambition, his bi-sexuality, and his tortured relationship with his father - are given short shrift. While Basquiat may have been a "radiant child," he could also be a thin-skinned brat who alienated many with his unreasonable and likely drug-distorted demands. Most in the art world are willing to forgive that because of his formidable talent and the powerful humanity that he bought to his art. But I wish the filmmaker would have been more embracing of the complexity of his life and push harder for more truthful answers from its subjects, many of whom come of as evasive and even slightly dishonest at times. By the end of this film I could not help but feel that everyone - including the filmmaker - was hiding something for fear that the truth about Jean-Michel Basquiat might not reflect well on him. But that's the deal with documentary. It's not always pretty but that doesn't mean you don't address basic truths openly and directly. Even with these complaints, however, this film is still worth seeing because it's likely the only one that will feature those who knew him well.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply Brillant, Sep 20 2010
By Red - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (DVD)
I saw this film today and it was the most brillant body of work that I've seen in quite some time. It just built on all the things that I already knew about Jean-Michel. The interviews were very insightful and moving. Beauty, Art, Tragedy, and Fame all wrapped into one. I loved it from start to finish. They say nobody loves a genius child but if you are a fan of Basquiat or just curious about his life in any way...do not hesitate to purchase this film.
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