Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat

Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat is a 2017 American documentary film directed by Sara Driver. It tells the story about Jean-Michel Basquiat and the New York City art scene in the late 1970s.[2] The film had its premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2017.[3] It was released in the United States on May 11, 2018.[4]

Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Film poster
Directed bySara Driver
Produced by
  • Rachel Dengiz
  • Sara Driver
Starring
CinematographyAdam Benn
Edited byAdam Kurnitz
Production
company
Hells Kitten Productions
Distributed byMagnolia Pictures
Release date
  • September 8, 2017 (2017-09-08) (Toronto)
  • May 11, 2018 (2018-05-11) (United States)
Running time
78 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$193,520[1]

Cast

Production

The idea for the film originally came from The New School's panel discussion about Jean-Michel Basquiat's early life.[5] About a month or two later, Hurricane Sandy hit New York City.[5] A scientist Alexis Adler, who is Sara Driver's friend and lived with Basquiat, had put Basquiat's drawings and writings in a bank vault.[5] She went to the bank and found them safe.[5] In a 2018 interview with Interview, Driver recalled, "I saw what she had and I was like, this is not only a window into him, but this is a window into New York at that particular moment in time."[5] Driver bought a camera and started shooting the film.[5]

Release

The film had its premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2017.[3] Subsequently, Magnolia Pictures acquired the North American rights to the film.[6] It was released in the United States on May 11, 2018.[4]

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 47 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat offers an insightful look into a key period of the artist's life, his peers and influences, and the early '80s art world."[7] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[8]

Wendy Ide of The Observer gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and commented that "Boom for Real is as much an account of a specific, thrillingly gritty period in New York's art history as it is a portrait of the young Basquiat."[9] John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Fame, money and addiction are a world away from Boom for Real, a movie that understands how, even for an artist with more ambition and more willingness to play the game than most of his peers, creativity can still be its own reward."[10] Owen Gleiberman of Variety called the film "compact but highly resonant".[11] Matt Fagerholm of RogerEbert.com gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, writing, "Driver is a fascinating and crucial artist in her own right, and I'd love to see her make more movies."[12]

References
  1. "Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat". The Numbers. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  2. Aftab, Kaleem (June 20, 2018). "Sara Driver on getting behind the camera for the first time in 24 years: 'It's still so difficult for women'". The Independent. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  3. N'Duka, Amanda (September 8, 2017). "'Boom For Real' Clip: Sara Driver's Documentary On Famed Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat – Toronto". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  4. Scott, H. Alan (May 10, 2018). "2018 Summer Movies List: Release Dates for Deadpool 2, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and More". Newsweek. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  5. Nwadiogbu, Ngozi (May 7, 2018). "Five things we learned from the Basquiat documentary, Boom for Real". Interview. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  6. Hipes, Patrick (October 4, 2017). "Jean-Michel Basquiat Docu 'Boom For Real' Acquired By Magnolia Pictures". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  7. "Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  8. "Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  9. Idee, Wendy (June 24, 2018). "Boom for Real review – a vivid portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat". The Observer. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  10. DeFore, John (September 10, 2017). "'Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat': Film Review | TIFF 2017". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  11. Gleiberman, Owen (May 8, 2018). "Film Review: 'Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat'". Variety. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  12. Fagerholm, Matt (May 11, 2018). "Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.