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High Art

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Romance
Written by: Lisa Cholodenko
Directed by: Lisa Cholodenko
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 12, 1998
DVD: July 27, 2004
Running Time: 101 minutes, Color
Origin: USA / Canada
Summary
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.
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
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...
Entertainment Weekly Beth Pinsker
Who knew that Brat Packer Sheedy would shine as a heroin-addicted photographer who had too much fame too early?
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Variety Emanuel Levy
Compassionate and deft as Cholodenko's helming is, pic's overall impact largely depends on its central triangle.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
A work that shellacs itself into your consciousness.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Sensitive acting and imaginative filmmaking help rescue the movie from potential excesses of its own.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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]
Los Angeles Times Jack Mathews
High Art is, unfortunately, full of itself and its artistic pretensions.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
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.
