- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
88The documentary carrying the same name as Schiele's painting works like a suspense drama and a slippery chronicle of ownership, theft and vaguely unsettling resolution.
-
88The conclusion is a testament to the fact that authentic justice is probably only attainable by accident.
-
78With a saga this sprawling and byzantine, it makes sense that the emphasis is not on Schiele, but rather on what the sorely wronged Bondi never stopped calling "my Schiele."
-
75Portrait Of Wally tells a gripping story, but the filmmakers should have been more forthright about their own part in it.
-
May 10, 201270The film's single-minded treatment puts property issues over other nuances of the affair, not least the art itself and the artist. A brief postscript about the early deaths of Schiele and his pregnant wife feels uncomfortably like an afterthought.
-
70Shea's documentary is a well-arranged if rather drawn-out parade of talking heads telling Wally's story, including a trenchant and funny Morley Safer, never missing a chance to knock the art world.
-
70Portrait of Wally may be too narrowly focused for some viewers, but offers an engaging narrative and high-profile subject that should attract audiences at fests and in specialized theatrical bookings.
-
May 8, 201270Turning over rocks in and around the New York art world, helmer Andrew Shea finds a lot of ugly stuff while chronicling what amounts to a 60-year hostage drama centered around the Egon Schiele oil painting that gives the film its title.
-
60Though overly dependent on a roundelay of talking heads, the film escalates into an ace legal thriller, spinning a web of shame that snags everything from the Austrian government to America's most beloved not-for-profits.
-
50What's most vexing about Portrait of Wally is its lack of nuance.