is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.

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from bad women to banksy: will we survive the loss of judgment?

The more I think about it, the sadder I am that many people will not go see Sex and the City 2 because of those bogus reviews. Today I am calling them bogus (whereas yesterday I was more measured in my criticism) because, the more I think about it, the more false almost all of those nasty reviews are. Many of them make some good points, but all of them, in addition to committing biased or unfair readings, offer serious misreportings of what actually happened in the film. It is quite simply wrong to say that the movie is full of �unexamined privilege,� or that the women only want to shop and don�t care about their jobs, or that the characters have morphed into something that their fans wouldn�t recognize. Various other erroneous assertions are already recorded in my review, and in Jodi�s. It seems that the reviewers got caught up in a swirl of competitive shit-slinging driven by the kind of veiled (no pun intended) sexism and ageism that is the bedrock of U.S. culture. So, yes, it makes me sad that many people who would be moved or even simply happily entertained by this latest installment of the story of these friendships may choose to sit the film out. And it also makes me sad that the number of professional film critics who are able to view the film fairly adds up to almost zero.

That leads me to Exit Through the Gift Shop. I recommend you see it. The first half is great to watch, full of great street art and artists. The second half gets tiresome because it focuses on a man with no ideas who manages, with the help (some of it unwitting) of some famous street artists, to get himself declared the next big thing in art in Los Angeles. Thierry Guetta should be thanked for spending a decade following around various street artists and recording their works, since without those tapes we�d largely have no record of works that are by their nature temporary. But the guy is borderline mentally ill and sadly impressionable. And it seems that Banksy used him, whether purposefully or not, to make a good point about the larger world of art.

On the one hand, there is something wondrously provocative about a documentary that starts out with an aim to shed light on an art movement for which money has never been the point� but ends up focusing on the capacity the art world has to overvalue crap by means of its embrace of hype over judgment. It is a filmic version of a Banksy piece. And I am a fan of Banksy�s provocations.

But there is still my other hand. And on that hand sit twin reservations�one reservation wonders whether using a sad stupid man to make that point is ethical (though, of course, the idiot is now tremendously rich, so it�s hard to say he�s been punished); the other objects to having to sit through that much of the story about the sad stupid man. Why didn�t I get to see more of Swoon or her work, or meet Akim on film (whom I�ve met in person, and whose work is great), or see more of the truly wondrous amount of street art out there, much of which I haven�t seen? Why did I not get more of that?

I guess the answer is: because this film is a Banksy piece, and it can�t give me exactly what I want and still be what it is.

So my reservation, located somewhere between ethical discomfort and personal annoyance, is just that, a reservation. I still think everyone should see the film. It�s great.

Most of it is great to watch. Parts of it are not. You will suffer through them. But overall, its main message, which is never stated in so many words but instead relies on a sense made by cumulating evidence, has a kind of an awe-inspiring staying power. It is all very Banksy.

And that point, about how freaking silly the art world can be? And how its silliness ignores so much else about the world that needs our attention? Awesomely made.

This relates back to my opening paragraph�s concern about Sex and the City 2. In both cases what we face is evidence of a distressing lack of capacity for judgment amongst those who are paid to judge�professional critics of various kinds. A crisis of judgment. It saddens me.

Banksy makes the point so well. But since he never says it in so many words, it might be missed entirely by some viewers. I suppose that is a risk good art must be willing to take.

But I�m not sure that good art can save us from a crisis of judgment.

7:26 p.m. - June 04, 2010
Elena - 2010-06-06 06:42:55
thank you
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js - 2010-06-10 06:30:46
thanks for the thanks!
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