The Cool School

You REALLY, REALLY have to be an art lover to like this documentary. I mean, I thought after the glacial pacing that maybe I would learn something new about art and I did. But not enough to slog through after the first 10 - 15 minutes. I just couldn't take it anymore. Yes, I agree these guys/gals made their artistic bones on the west coast and need to be recognized but they deserved a better presentation as a whole. Even the celebrity cameos felt limp. I was more interested in the brand of cigars they were smoking than in the subject they were discussing. I flipped back to view what I had recorded from the History Channel to finish my night.

Viewed at Starz Denver Film Festival. This IS the film if you want a crash course on LA's hipster art scene of the mid '50s and late '60s. Thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end. It was at Ferus Gallery that bookwormish Walter Hopps (who cared about the art) and Cary Grant-like Irving Blum (who cared about the money) brought together a unique and odd collection of off-beat artists to La Cienega - Ed Kienholz, Ed Ruscha, Larry Bell, John Altoon, Billy Al Bengston, Ed Moses, Robert Irwin and Kenneth Price, among others. Bon vivants, artists, collectors and cigar afficionados Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell are interspersed throughout. The gallery housed Warhol's first exhibit, brought in Lichtenstein, and got busted by the cops for an exhibit deemed obscene. After seeing the film, I suggest going to Barney's Beanery in West Hollywood - to look up the ghosts.