BOOGIE WOOGIE (a review)

Yes, from the poster and the title and the fact is stars Heather Graham I assumed this was somehow related to BOOGIE NIGHTS and Heather Graham's Roller Girl character. And yes, I would watch any movie with more of Roller Girl. Instead, it's a movie about the art world. And it's by another movie by a first time director, Duncan Ward (IMDB actually lists another movie he directed, but it was back in 1989), so that adds a bit of worry to it. But the movie does have a heck of a cast, including Heather Graham, Amanda Seyfried, Stellan Skarsgård, Gillian Anderson, Christopher Lee, and Alan Cumming. So how is it?

The story: an ensemble piece that follows several characters around the London art scene. Most notably are characters trying to buy a rare masteriece (the Boogie Woogie), a galley assistant wants to strike out on her own, a collector and his wife get a divorce as she has an affair with a young artist, and a young girl meets several people on the art scene and realizes that while she is interested in art they are interested in sex.

Ensemble pieces are tough to make work. Ensemble satire is even tougher. It's worse with this movie because I don't know piss about the high end ($20MIL) art scene, so what exactly they are satirizing I have no idea. And since there isn't a clear focus -- either plot-wise or thematically -- the whole thing feels like we are just watching a lot of people wandering around. The most common thread of all the characters is the sale of this rare painting, but even that was pretty empty. If it's a real painting I've never heard of it and it never is really explained why getting it would be so important, other than the idea that it's worth a lot of money. And the others, while their stories have certains arcs the WHY of it all -- why is their story worth telling, what's the impact on me supposed to be -- I have no clue.

I like the actors, but seriously you could have just filmed them eating dinner together, talking about random crap and it probably would have been more entertaining. None of the characters were likable. None of the stories were compelling.

*** PASS ****

(coming soon)