Basquiat

Call me artistically challenged, but this critically-drooled-over reprise of the short life and tragic death of black artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (Jeffrey Wright) struck me as a strictly paint-by-numbers effort that fell--narratively speaking--somewhere between a photo montage and a music video. Wright (praised for his work in Angels in America) says little, and acts less, literally stumbling from scene to scene in the character's pot and cocaine-induced haze. A score of name actors (including the headliners David Bowie, Dennis Hopper, and Gary Oldman) walk on and off stage, each doing his or her brief turn, to no appreciable end. What is most irritating is that Basquiat does occasionally hit a raw nerve touching on the system or race relations, but these illuminating moments are rare. Writer/director Julian Schnabel (an artist and former friend of Basquiat) would much rather show us pictures, or better yet, use a song (the movie is wall-to-wall songs) as emotional shorthand rather than actually say anything. Optional. (R. Pitman)