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High Art
October Films

High Art reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 73 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
10.0 out of 10
based on 17 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for strong sexuality, pervasive drug use and language

Starring Radha Mitchell, Gabriel Mann, Charis Michaelson, David Thornton, Anh Duong, Ally Sheedy, Patricia Clarkson, and Helen Mendes

An award-winning romantic drama about a photo magazine editor (Mitchell) and the heroin-addicted former photo prodigy (Sheedy) with whom she falls in love.


GENRE(S): Romance  
WRITTEN BY: Lisa Cholodenko  
DIRECTED BY: Lisa Cholodenko  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: July 27, 2004 
Video: July 27, 2004 
Theatrical: June 12, 1998 
RUNNING TIME: 101 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA / Canada 

Winner, Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, 1998 Sundance Film Festival; Winner, Best Actress (Sheedy), 1999 National Society of Film Critics Awards; Winner, Best Female Lead (Sheedy), 1999 Independent Spirit Awards

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

91
Entertainment Weekly Beth Pinsker
Who knew that Brat Packer Sheedy would shine as a heroin-addicted photographer who had too much fame too early?
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90
LA Weekly Ernest Hardy
What makes High Art remarkable is Cholodenko's refusal to put her characters or story through a filter, her unblinking willingness to dive right in.
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88
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
So perceptive and mature it makes similar films seem flippant. The performances are on just the right note, scene after scene, for what needs to be done.
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80
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
As storytelling it isn'’t always as clean as it might be, but this 1998 first feature by writer-director Lisa Cholodenko is an interesting debut for its nuanced sense of character and its terrific sex scenes--scenes that actually serve character development for a change.
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80
Variety Emanuel Levy
Compassionate and deft as Cholodenko's helming is, pic's overall impact largely depends on its central triangle.
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80
The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
To their credit, the actors immerse themselves deeply in the film's self-conscious aura. Ms. Sheedy reinvents herself as a tough, fascinating presence, while Ms. Mitchell's earnest bewilderment also serves the story well.
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80
Dallas Observer Peter Rainer
With more angst than you can shake a stick at, High Art sets a new course for the indie American film. Instead of the usual Scorsese-esque buddy confab, we have something closer to the funky Fassbinder world of marginalized, pansexual depressives.
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78
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
A work that shellacs itself into your consciousness.
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75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Sensitive acting and imaginative filmmaking help rescue the movie from potential excesses of its own.
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70
The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Though High Art has more than a few awkward touches--all the male characters take up less than one dimension, for example--it's otherwise a nicely underplayed, memorable, beautifully filmed movie.
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70
TV Guide Sandra Contreras
First-time director Lisa Cholodenko, who has made a powerful and modish film with a subtle and knowing script, is more than ably assisted by a spectacular cast.
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63
ReelViews James Berardinelli
I suppose High Art is as good a name as any for this pretentious melodrama, an often- diverting but ultimately pointless attempt to wed intellectual twaddle with a soap-opera-ish lesbian romance.
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63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Has a subtle magnetism, and a real human pulse, especially as it concentrates on its two main characters.
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60
Film Threat Merle Bertrand
Solid debut effort from Lisa Cholodenko.
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50
San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson
Cholodenko's strategy of having the actors, in every scene -- whether it involves Lucy, the boyfriend or the Frame editors -- perform with an intonational flatness approaching monotone pretentiously undermines the effectiveness of her subject matter.
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50
San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham
It is wonderful to see how Sheedy gives shape to this performance -- her eyes, a photographer's eyes, carefully sizing everything up. [18 June 1998, Daily Notebook, p.E1]
50
Los Angeles Times Jack Mathews
High Art is, unfortunately, full of itself and its artistic pretensions.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Buttered Popcorn gave it a 10:
Great movie. this ranks up there with a select few movies that are as funny as they are sad. I saw this movie years ago, and it really does stick with you. The reviews don't really give enough mention of a main point of this movie: drug addiction and its effects. That theme has at least as much weight in this movie as the love affair. But see this movie - it is fascinating and treats its audience with intelligence.

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