Downtown 81 Reviews

the 80's art scene will be something that is studied again and again. art as a commodity and the wild times that brought it about. this movie represents it in an interesting way. but is it good?

the short answer is no. the film is clearly amateur right down to poorly dubbing synchronization of the voices. in the narration this is fine, and in some parts that warp into a kind've drug haze or or surrealist slant, but this error happens in normal parts of the film that have no business being this way.

story wise the movie is useless. a poor artist man just out of the hospital, where hes been for some time, randomly meets a random model who is driving by him. she for unknown reasons decides she likes him, picks him up and precedes to promise to take care of him "for life". almost immediately he looses her and then spends the rest of the movie looking for her...which is a simple set up to get his character to walk though a bunch of live performances of different bands playing. at the end, to round things out, he meets her again and "realizes" he doesn't need her help.

its awesome to see jean-michel basquiat himself and as i said before the film is significant as it records a moment in time in a expressive (or an attempt of expressive) way. but otherwise its very random, a bit annoying, and just not very good.

so as far as whether or not you should watch this: if you are interested in 80's NY art scene or jean-michel then its a must see, for everyone else---avoid this like the plague!