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Basquiat

1996

Julian Schnabel

Jeffrey Wright, David Bowie, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman ...

6.3

2,545

Drama Basquiat tells the story of the meteoric rise of youthful artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Starting out as a street artist.

	Author	Review
United States	Janet Maslin The New York Times	"Bold, attention-getting and more than a little facile, a stylish-looking film without the connective tissue to give it real depth"	NEU
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"The confident, poetic filmmaking debut of the painter Julian Schnabel (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Hal Hinson The Washington Post	"It touches on all the square cliches about the tragic life of the misunderstood artist (...) The whole movie, in fact, is fuzzy and evasive on most of the important points"	NEG
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"Jeffrey Wright is magnetic and moving (...) Schnabel’s exceptional film honors his friend by showing the act of creation as a natural high."	POS
United States	Emanuel Levy Variety	"Decently modest, though decidedly unexciting (...) Whatever is wrong with the conceptual framework and execution of Julian Schnabel’s feature debut is almost compensated for by an illustrious cast of terrific actors"	NEU
United States	Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader	"There isn't a boring shot anywhere, and writer-director Schnabel is clearly enjoying himself as he plays with expressionist sound, neo-Eisensteinian edits, and all sorts of other filmic ideas."	POS
United Kingdom	Jake Hamilton Empire	"There is some fine photography and some imaginative images, but Schnabel's elitist snobbery turns almost every scene into overblown tragedy (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEU

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