Ben Is Back

Rated: MBen Is Back

Directed and Written by: Peter Hedges

Produced by: Peter Hedges, Nina Jacobson, Teddy Schwarzman, Brad Simpson

Starring: Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, Courtney B. Vance, Kathryn Newton, Rachel Bay Jones, David Zaldivar, Alexandra Park, Mia Fowler, Jakari Fraser.

It’s Christmas time.  Ivy (Kathryn Newton) is singing in the church choir while her mother, Holly (Julia Roberts) looks on with her two youngest from her second marriage, Lacey (Mia Fowler) and Liam (Jakari Fraser).

The snow is falling as Ben (Lucas Hedges) crunches across the yard towards the house.

He knows no one is home.

Ben is back

This is a film about addiction.  About the hold it takes and the effect on family and a mother who refuses to give up on her son.

Sounds dramatic, right?

I went into the cinema expecting a traumatic, family drama to unfold with Julia Roberts as the mother weeping and screaming the whole way through…

But there’s restraint from director (and writer) Peter Hedges, allowing the writing to tell the story without the need for over-acting – the story made more emotive because of the quiet telling.

It feels like the film is about someone Hedges knows; a brave move casting his son, Lucas Hedges as the son in the film, learning to live with all his actions as an addict, returning home to try again as he struggles to share his need.

Lucas is perfect for this role.

There’s something so genuine in his manner.  I first saw him in his role as Jared (a young man trapped in a re-education program, Love In Action (LIA) to be cured of his homosexuality) in Boy Erased.

He’s brought the same believability here: the charisma, the cunning, the pain.

And Julia Roberts nailed her role as his mother, knowing she’ll never stop trying, never let go.

It’s a sad and heavy tale as Ben takes his mother to re-visit his past as a junkie; the danger and humiliation endured to feed his addiction.   There’s insight into the pain and grip the drug takes on a person and cost of all those who love them.

I’m not saying I overly enjoyed watching this film, but I’m impressed by the way this film was shown.  Without getting slapped in the face, we get to see the sadistic nature of addiction and the consequences on a family that feels very like any other normal family.

We’re also shown the view from the addict – the initial want to share the experience because they think they’ve found a truth worth sharing.  People become addicts for a reason.

The film doesn’t demonise the user, it’s more about understanding.

‘When you get shaky, go to a meeting,’

There’s a lot of debate currently about harm-minimisation, with the recent deaths over New Year at music festivals because of drug over-dose.  It’s easy to say yes, I think that legal drug-testing onsite to see the ingredients is a good idea.  I personally think it would make the dealers sell a far more pure product.  But the reminder of the addictive nature of drugs shown in this films demonstrates the ripple of catastrophic consequences addiction has on the user, families and communities.

Holding a pack with the brown heroin showing through, Ben’s mother, Holly personalises the substance by saying, ‘You monster’.

And that’s what the film manages to achieve, a personalisation of addiction.

https://youtu.be/eV384La_Q9Q

The Mule

Rated: MThe Mule

Directed by: Clint Eastwood

Screenplay by: Nick Schenk

Based on: “The Sinaloa Cartel’s 90-Year-Old Drug Mule” by Sam Dolnick

Produced by: Clint Eastwood, Tim Moore, Kristina Rivera, Jessica Meier, Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Peña, Dianne Wiest, Andy Garcia.

More than anything, The Mule is a character-driven film, revolving around the audacity of ninety-year-old Earl Stone (Clint Eastwood – himself now 88 years-old) getting away with transporting millions of dollars of drugs loaded into the back of his pick-up for a cartel: ‘Maybe you enjoyed living in the moment a little too much.  That’s why you’re working for us,’ one of the bosses tells him.

Based on an article published in the New Yorker “The Sinaloa Cartel’s 90-Year-Old Drug Mule” by Sam Dolnick, Earl is doing well in 2005.  He’s a horticulturist winning trophies.  He’s missing his daughter’s wedding.  This is his life.

Fast forward twelve years and his business has fallen apart, like his marriage.  His daughter hasn’t spoken to him since he missed her wedding.

This is his life.

He’s broke.

So when he gets an opportunity to get out on the road again and get paid envelopes filled with cash at the other end, it’s easy money.

Earl fought in Korea.  Guns don’t scare him.  The cartel guys don’t scare him.  He’s a cranky, politically incorrect old codger who gets friendly with the cartel guys while he gets richer.

It’s a great role for Eastwood – quirky and certain, brave and a pain in the arse.  His character evolves as his family becomes more of a focus in his life, so there’s the family drama here as well.

And there’s some big names in supporting roles, Brad Cooper as DEA Agent Colin Bates when meeting Earl over coffee likes him, telling him, ‘you’ve lived so long you’ve lost your filter’.  There’s Michael Peña as fellow DEA Agent, Laurence Fishburne heads up the DEA and there’s Andy Garcia as the cartel King Pin – but all these big names are all in support of the legend that is Clint Eastwood, lead role and director.

I would have liked more of the criminal element, making more of the star-studded cast, but it’s really about the entertainment of the character, Earl, and his ability to get away with his crime as a drug mule because who’s going to believe a ninety-year-old gringo’s shifting drugs for a cartel?

The Mule is more drama than thriller (some-what disappointingly) but there’s some good humour here, delivered by one of the greats.

Free Solo

Rated: MFree Solo

Directed by: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin

Produced by: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Evan Hayes

Cinematographer: Jimmy Chin

Featuring: Alex Honnold

‘I see it all rooted in rationalism, in a basic evaluation of objective reality: Can I do this?  And if I can, then I just do it’ – Alex Honnold.

After nine years of living in a van, living a ‘dirt-bag’ climber existence, professional rock climber Alex Honnold overcomes the most fearsome feat for a ground dweller to contemplate: to free solo climb (rock climbing without rope or any safety net if he falls) the El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.  A 3200-foot climb that climbing with ropes requires a gold medal standard of skill.

To climb without a safety-net requires an iron-clad emotional armour where fear has no place.

This ability to overcome fear became such a fascination Alex agreed to have a Functional-MRI scan to analyse the function of his brain while pictures of fearful images were shown: knives, heights (ha, ha).  It was interesting to see his amygdala showed no activation compared to the control.

Alex explains he’s faced his fears so often there’s no fear left.

Director Jimmy Chin explains the difficulty in filming a documentary where the threat of death is as close as you can get.  It has its issues.  Especially when you’re friends with the guy.

It’s all about trusting the subject (friend) to make the right decisions and not push just because he’s on camera.  And that trust and not wanting to see someone you know fall to their death while you’re filming creates a whole other dimension to the film because we see the type of personality it takes to contemplate, let alone, achieve something so dangerous, scary, impossible.

Adding girlfriend, Sanni McCandless, to the mix just shows the layers of emotion Alex has to process, or not – he’s kinda a cold rational thinker adding a bizarre lightness to the tone of the film – to get to a headspace to make such a climb.

Free Solo wasn’t so much a thrill ride, although I kept repeating, Oh my God.  Oh. My. GOD – the ‘Boulder Problem’ part of the climb had me gripping the arm rest of my seat.  The film was more an insight into the process to get to that headspace – iron-clad determination combined with a shrug of, We’ve all got to die at some stage.

Finding the edge just makes death feel more immediate.  If you die in an accident, then it’s a shame – you’ll be missed.  But dying on your own terms changes the dynamic.  Life is short.  Live it.

When someone loves you, like Alex’s seemingly accident-provoking, ever-loving girlfriend Sanni, then there’s more to lose.

The film asks, but if you don’t do what you love than how do you feel alive?

Free Solo isn’t a documentary just about Alex, it also brings the film makers into the story, to show the truth of what Alex’s trying to achieve.  It’s crazy.  To film the climb is crazy.  But he does it.  And it’s amazing.

Let The Sunshine In

Directed by: Claire DenisLet The Sunshine In

Screenplay Written by: Claire Denis & Christine Angot

Produced by: Olivier Delbosc

Starring: Juliette Binoche, Xavier Beauvois, Philippe Katerine, Josiane Balasko, Sandrine Dumas, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Alex Descas, Laurent Grevill, Bruno Podalydés, Paul Blain, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Gérard Depardieu.

I wrote my thesis on, A Lover’s Discourse – Fragments (Ronald Barthes (1977)), using Hemingway’s writing in, The Garden of Eden (1986), Across the River and into the Trees (1950) and also his short fiction piece, Hills Like White Elephants (1927) as an illustration of Ronald Barthes theory:

That love cannot be expressed through language, that love is expressed through the ‘nothing’ that is not language, that it is the actions and gifts given because of love that signpost to the reader that the characters in the story are in love, or conversely, not in love.  Because of the nature of writing love, I have utilized Hemingway’s writing as a basis for Barthes’ theory – it is Hemingway that writes love and it is Barthes that writes of love.

Let the Sunshine In was originally based on the Discourse then evolved into a screenplay written by Claire Denis (also director) & Christine Angot where Isabelle (Juliette Binoche) falls in love, only to have her heart broken, to love again… and again…

Divorced and the mother of a ten-year-old daughter, we only see briefly as a face behind the window of a car pulling away, Isabelle mirroring the outline of her hand on the other side of the glass.  The love of her child is not what this film’s about.  This is a series of moments as Isabelle opens a dialogue with the men she means to love and all the complications and baggage finding love at an older age brings.

She’s not old; she’s not young.

Isabelle laments to a friend that she feels her love life is behind her.  The impossibility of each relationship revealing itself in complicated exchanges, each trying to find a way towards or away from the other.

The camera pans back and forth from the cheating husband who bluntly describes his extraordinary wife he will never leave, to the realisation on Isabelle’s face when she can’t find a way back to the love with this man after his blatant denial – no matter how charming he finds her.

We’ve all been there, the wondering of how much to give, how much to take.  For love.

Here, we see the pulling apart of feelings that are there, or not.  And the language, the limit of language as the lovers try to get past all the talk to find the physical connection.  And then, to keep it.

It’s a complicated film that manages to avoid melodrama, replacing physical expressed emotion with words.

I wonder how much was lost in the translation from French to the English subtitles, yet Barthes’ Discourse is what’s being translated with the depth of meaning still conveyed.

Putting love into words is a difficult conversation.

The expertise and experience of Juliette Binoche shines here.  I couldn’t imagine another actress portraying the vulnerability of Isabelle, the willingness to follow the reasoning behind the emotions from the other.  A heavy burden but a successful one.  Like reading a play because it’s all about the dialogue and the tears and expression and never-ending search for love.

Let the sunshine In isn’t a love story, nor a drama; it’s not sad.  It’s a lover’s discourse.

Mary, Queen of Scots

Rated: MA15+Mary Queen of Scots

Directed by: Josie Rourke

Written by: Beau Willimon

Based on the Book, “Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart” by John Guy

Produced by: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, Jack Lowden, Joe Alwyn, Gemma Chan, Martin Compston, Ismael Cordova, Brendan Coyle, Ian Hart, Adrian Lester, James McArdle, with David Tennant, and Guy Pearce.

In the same vein of Elizabeth (1998) staring Golden Globe winner for Best Actress, Cate Blanchett, Mary, Queen of Scots is an intricate film of politics, love, betrayal, stupidity and power.

This is Josie Rouke’s directional debut, her success here, the ability to show the rivalry and complicated relationship between the two half-sisters: Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.

Mary returns home from France, married at 16 only to become a widow at 18, to return as Queen of Scotland with rightful claim to England, the power in her blood as a Stuart.  A power she has to continually fight for against the male dominated world of 1587.  Where women are condemned as evil, especially returning as Catholic in a land whose foundations rest on the Church of Scotland.

Elizabeth also struggles in a male dominated world.

As a Protestant, Queen Elizabeth has forsaken the ties of the Catholic Church, renouncing the Papas, yet, she struggles to renounce her sister.

And the careful confrontation and manoeuvring for power between the two fiery sisters is fascinating to watch.

We get the intrigue of House of Cards but set in the ‘resplendent’ (as Queen Elizabeth is described by her constant companion and lover Robert Dudley (Joe Alwyn)) rolling lands of Scotland and England to jewels sparkling in candle-lit rooms filled with gentle women and plotting aristocracy, where Elizabeth acknowledges the treachery of men and her necessity to become one in order to remain on the throne.

There’s a lot to unpack, being one of those epic films; but the way the film is shown with Mary speaking to the audience, watching herself at times, telling her tale.  And the symbolism of Elizabeth burning an intricate quilled portrait of red poppies, her obsessive creating of red flowers flowing across the floor like blood from her empty womb hold the attention, to be absorbed into the tragedy and intrigue of the story.

There’s so much attention to detail here, portraying Mary in a different light to the general condemnation of history; the tragedy of being sentenced to death by beheading, ordered by her half-sister, Elizabeth – her reputation, based on unfounded rumours and lies spread by her own Council of sexual depravity and betrayal.  A reputation that has followed Mary into the ages.

The film, based on the detailed historical book, “Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart” written by John Guy shows there’s so much more to be told about this powerful woman.

‘There’s a time for wisdom, love.  And there’s a time for strength,’ Mary tells her half-brother, a statement backed by a cold, icy stare shown so well by Saoirse Ronan.

And Margot Robbie shows a continued depth and maturity as an actress in her role of Queen Elizabeth.

Not quite capturing the embodiment of the steal and soft that Cate Blanchett managed to bring to Queen Elizabeth, there’s strong performances here, the success of the film not only an interesting story, but the careful balance between the two powerful protagonists of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth: where only a queen could understand the burden of ruling a kingdom while remaining each other’s greatest threat.

Pick Of The Litter

Rated: G Pick of the Litter

Directed and Produced by: Dana Nachman and Don Hardy

Written by: Dana Nachman

Original Score: Helen Jane Long

Photographed and Edited by: Don Hardy

In Order of Appearance:  Diane Meier, Terry Blosser, Janet Gearheart, Sharon Kret, Ronald Strother, Christine Benninger, Linda Owen, Rebecca Minelga, Eric Minelga, Oliver Minelga, Nick Ursano, Alice Ursano, Cathy Wassenberg, Bill Wassenberg, Lisa King, Chris King, Patti White, Al White, Louise Pay, Gail Horn, Tammy Shankle, Adam Vanderhoofven, Melissa Griffith, Kristin Sheppard, Kenny Sheppard, Deana Allen, Anne Tyson, Rick Wilcox, Maureen Balogh, Jenna Bullis, Meghan Fraser, Carol Simmons, Adam Silverman, Melanie Harris, Stacey Ellison, Todd Jurek, Rachel Chamness.

A documentary shot over two years, Pick of the Litter follows a litter of five puppies (otherwise known as the P-Litter) born into the Guide Dogs for the Blind program.

This is a straight-forward, linear doco that allows the dogs and those who come into contact with them, tell the story.  And it’s very sweet getting to know each of the dogs as we follow them through their training from pups to adulthood: Patriot (mouthy and super-enthusiastic), Phil (the chiller), Potomac (a handful and full of curiosity), Poppet (a blessing who loves her work) and Primrose (well, she just wants to be loved).

Co-directors Dana Nachman and Don Hardy have teamed up for their forth feature doco, Pick of the Litter taking three times the number of shots trying to keep up with each of the dogs to capture each personality.  And the extra time and care pays off as I found myself cheering along the dogs wanting them to succeed after all the effort not just from the dogs but from the volunteers who train them.

Especially Patriot who reminded me of a hyper-kelpie farm dog I once knew (Benji), jumping and straining against his chain, chocking himself with excitement.  The trainers have to be able to re-direct this energy into obedience and skill.

We’ve all come across a guide dog and their human at some point, understanding the role of the dog’s guidance of a blind or visually impaired person.  Pick of the Litter opens the door to the rigorous training process, only the select few making it to become someone’s guide into the world, to give back so much freedom.

It’s an education to watch.  And sad to see when all the work doesn’t end in success.

It’s sad and sweet and makes you feel good about those out there doing their best to help those in need showing that training these special canines isn’t for everyone with a 16 to 18 month commitment (dog asleep by 10pm; owner asleep by 10pm!), with constant assessment by the program to see if the dog’s appropriate to continue training or be, ‘career changed’, meaning, a civilian dog.  And it’s not unusual for a dog to be taken from one trainer and given to another if it means a better chance for the dog to succeed.

Lives are put into the hands of these dogs, so it was reassuring to see the process, to see the dogs themselves show their will not to be a guide dog.  Sometimes the dog’s life is meant for something or someone else.

The film just adds to the fascination and special relationship between human and dog.  I swear my pet Aussie Terrier, Jim-Bob could sense when I was sad and would find me to cheer me up.

So, it’s a dog-lover’s movie with a special interest into the process of training these extra-special dogs to become guide dogs, shown from each perspective of those involved from: the breeders, the volunteers who train them, the trainers in the association who graduate them, to those who ultimately benefit.  And the dogs.  Who doesn’t like a dog movie!

Matangi /Maya /M.I.A.

Rated: MA 15+Matangi /Maya /MIA

Directed: Stephen Loveridge

Featuring: Maya Arulpragasam

‘This is what happened to a kid whose dad ran off to be a terrorist:’ Life doesn’t turn out the same way as someone whose dad is a banker, a lawyer or a fireman.

Maya’s choice of words is interesting. Usually, it would be the other side using such highly coloured and provocative language to describe the man behind the Tamil Tiger resistance movement. Partisans might be expected to use terms such as liberator or freedom fighter.

Maya was eleven when her mother and her siblings fled the war zone in their native Sri Lanka, to resettle in the refugee enclave in London. Although, the family was warmly welcomed into the fold, life was still harsh. Maya felt as if she didn’t fit in anywhere: she was ‘shot at in Sri Lanka’ and ‘spat at in Britain’. Music was her consolation and she would drift off to sleep listening to British pop through her headphones. That was, until they were burgled. Maya could do nothing but watch as her radio was carried off to a neighbouring flat.

It might have been one of the lowest points in her life as she lay awake listening to the music spilling out from the flat across the way, but it was a turning point, too. Up until then music was Madonna and the Spice Girls, but when Maya heard her first hip hop beats it was an epiphany. She was listening to people with something to say, and hip hop was the way to say it.

While her sister was lamenting the lack of birthday and Christmas cards from their father, Maya found a source of strength and identity in his absence. Her father was fighting for ‘a human rights problem’, everything was ‘inhumane’ for the Tamils in Sri Lanka. ‘What he’s done to us, made us so strong. We are so independent. Fearless fighters.’ But, rather than taking up arms, Maya turned to documentary film making to express her activism.

Haunted by footage of a women her own age in the jungle armed with assault rifles, Maya returned to Sri Lanka hoping to reconnect with her extended family and find some answers: ‘How do women survive in the jungle’ just on a day-to-day practical level and ‘Why was it me that got away?’ Following that visit, MIA was born, and she released her debut album, Arula (named after her dad). A million copies were downloaded from Napster. ‘It happened so fast.’ Finally. MIA had a microphone, and there was no question she was going to use it.

Subversive and defiant, instead of ‘cookie cutter videos with beautiful girls’, MIA started out with a clip of, monkeys and the jungle, before moving on to exploits and video clips that would bring her both international stardom and notoriety. Because, ‘the worst thing they can do to you is make you irrelevant’.

Well, they can try …

But the woman who infamously flipped the bird to the audience during a half-time performance with Madonna at the Super Bowl in 2012 and the singer/songwriter of ‘Born Free’—a song that accompanies a deeply disturbing music clip where pale-skinned, red-haired boys are brutally hunted down by faceless military types clad in black body armour—will not be going quietly.

How to Tran Your Dragon: Hidden World

Rated: PGHow to Tran Your Dragon: Hidden World

Directed and Written by: Dean DeBlois

Based on the Books of: Cressida Cowell

Produced by: Brad Lewis, Bonnie Arnold

Starring: Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Cate Blanchett, Kit Harrington, Craig Ferguson, F. Murray Abraham.

The final of the trilogy (I had to go back and watch the previous two instalments (well worth the watch), How to Train your Dragon: Hidden World, finds Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and his Night Fury, Toothless, saving dragons from the Hunters to bring them back to the safety of Berk where Vikings and dragons coexist in peace.

Does anyone else think it’s strange that the Vikings have Scottish accents?!

The Hunters don’t believe dragons should be treated as equals, the evil villain, Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham), the Fury killer, believing peace can only be found when every Fury is dead.

The Hidden World is full of myth and fantasy; the Mariner Myth of the Hidden World a place where dragons live freely at the end of the world is the drive behind the story.

While fighting to save dragons from the clutches of Grimmel and searching for the mysterious Hidden World, Toothless meets a female Fury who’s beautiful and light with expressive blue eyes and moves that make his little heart race.

The courtship between these two is adorable, there’s no other word, my nephews and I awing and ahing at the antics of Toothless, his attempt to woo the beautiful Light Fury hilarious and delightful.

And the animation of this adventure-packed film is stunning; the burst of colours and detail of waterfalls and expressions of the dragons spectacular on the big screen.

Returning director and writer, Dean DeBlois has made a film to be enjoyed by all with some happy tears shed by many in the audience.

While making the most of the colourful characters like Tuffnut (T. J. Miller) brandishing his full thick beard (hilarious), we get a story about love, equality and freedom.

I had a smile on my face the whole way through, my nephew announcing The Hidden World the best How to Train Your Dragon out of the three, and quite rightly getting an applause from the audience at the end.

He then went on to say it was the best movie he’s ever seen.

I wouldn’t go that far, but The Hidden World is a great entertainer and a certain hit for the school holidays.

Aquaman

Rated: MAquaman

Directed by: James Wan

Story by: James Wan, Will Beall, Geoff Johns

Screenplay by: Will Beall, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick

Based on characters created by: Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger for DC

Produced by: Rob Cowan, Peter Safran

Starring: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Nicole Kidman, Ludi Lin and Temuera Morrison.

Aquaman was always going to be a difficult adaptation – the film about ‘fish boy[‘s].  No, it’s fish men!’; the setting underwater.

But with James Wan as director and one of the writers, I went into the film somewhat reassured.

Then the film opened with Atlanna (Nicole Kidman), Atlantean royalty meeting a surface dweller, and I was thrown because I just couldn’t believe I was seeing an Atlantis queen falling in love, the contrast a little too much.

Perhaps it was seeing Nicole Kidman as an action figure?!

And there were times when I really couldn’t decide whether to laugh with the film or at it – the guitar riff to highlight a joke not helping.

Yet, as the film progressed and Jason Momoa as Aquaman opened up to give us a down-to-earth (well, half-surface dweller, half-Atlantean Arthur Curry) hero, I became more absorbed.

Forbidden love between a queen of the sea and a man from the surface bears a forbidden son, a half-breed.  Aquaman.

Yet even as a half-breed, Aquaman has the right to claim the throne of Atlantis instead of his younger brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) who plots to become the Ocean Master; to bring together all seven kingdoms of the underwater world: Atlantis, Brine, Fisherman, Xebel, Trench, Deserter and the Lost.  Together they can destroy those on the surface.

Afterall, aren’t the surface-dwellers creating pollution and trashing the sea into poison for those who inhabit its waters?

Those who want peace with the surface dwellers not war, rise to the surface to seek Aquaman to fight for the throne to then save those above and below, with love-interest Mera (Amber Heard) abandoning Atlantis, just like his mother.  All leading to the meeting of the two brothers on opposing sides of an inevitable battle.

The writers have created enough twists and turns to keep the film interesting and it has to be noted the film has a different tone to the other DC, Justice League films.

Aquaman is more a technologically based world with an 80s-esq tone including synth soundtrack and fluorescent lit underwater worlds that become more spectacular as the film progresses.

Let me state again, it gets better!

There’s the expected cheese, because, yeah, this is Aquaman: Son of the land, king of the sea.

But Wan has offset this with humour and his own unique style.

Jason Momoa’s performance as Aquaman certainly helped.

So after an ordinary beginning, Aquaman ramps up to a deliver a visually stunning entertainer that was able to take a laugh at itself with a story that comes full circle.

Kusama Infinity: The Life and Art of Yayoi Kusama

Rated: MKusama Infinity: The Life and Art of Yayoi Kusama

Directed by: Heather Lenz

Produced by: Heather Lenz, Karen Johnson, David Koh, Dan Braun

Edited by: Keita Ideno, Sam Karp, John Northup, Nora Tennessen

Composed by: Allyson Newman

Director of Photography: Hart Perry

Featuring: Yayoi Kusama

From international scandal when she notoriously crashed the Venice Biennale in 1966 to Japan’s first female representative of in 2003, Yayoi Kusama is possibly the highest selling female artist on the planet today, and the queues for her exhibitions can be so long they can only be described as preposterous.

But, any exhibition is just a tiny window onto a body of work that, in this case, spans around 80 years. So, an opportunity to observe the genesis of the ideas and view a curated selection of the artist’s entire oeuvre, to see the various strands through the eyes of the artist can elicit that special thrill of recognition when you know that you get it, too.

In 1957, Kusama arrived in New York during the heyday of Minimalism with almost nothing but her talent and her boundless ambition. When she left Tokyo, flying first to Seattle, Kusama was mesmerised by the endless crests and swells of the sea below. Later, standing on the point of the Pacific Ocean, she felt as if she was poised on the edge of infinity. In a departure from her signature dot motif, Kusama produced a series of large canvasses, richly patterned with thick, impasto arabesques brushed over a thin stain. Superficially at one with the spare, self-referential style of Minimalism, Kusama’s Infinity Nets were inspired by the diametric opposite.

Instead of reduction, Kusama’s Nets represent a highly tactile and exuberant accumulation: ‘I am obsessed with Nets, they fascinate and haunt me.’ Rather than an art that speaks only to itself, Kusama’s work began with her deepest private experience, moving out to embrace the world and the infinity beyond: ‘I convert the energy of life into the dots of the universe.’

In her response to Minimalism, Kusama found herself among a cohort of white males, the rising stars of Pop Art, but the career trajectory was very different for the young Japanese émigré. In lieu of sales and grants, she worked tirelessly to secure patronage and, while she often achieved her goal, her desperation translated as aggression, further distancing her from the rarefied circles she hoped to move among. Since her goal was no less than, ‘To create a new history of art for the USA’, Kusama increasingly sought ever more radical and subversive avenues to bring attention to her practice.

Even so, Kusama was showing more in Europe than in America by 1966 when artist Lucio Fontana invited her to exhibit in front of the Italian pavilion at the Venice Biennale. She assembled an installation composed of 1500 reflective silver spheres with a sign in the middle that read, ‘Your Narcissism for Sale’. When asked to desist—despite the invite, Kusama was exhibiting without official permission—she had the perfect Pop Art comeback: ‘Why cannot I sell my art like ice-creams and hotdogs?’

By turns luminous and illuminating, this is the story of an artist who refused to accept oblivion. In response to decades of stonewalling by the art establishment, Kusama has sought ever more varied avenues to express her vision, from painting and sculpture to pioneering installation, naked happenings, performance and film. Very much aware of ‘the publicity that got a lot of attention’, Kusama has frequently waged her art as a guerrilla campaign. But at its heart are Kusama’s dots, ‘because stars don’t’ exist by themselves’.

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