The film strips away the romanticized gloss usually associated with artists in New York, opting instead for a gritty, hyper-realistic depiction of the 1990s photography scene. Cholodenko, who also wrote the script, ensures the dialogue is sharp and insightful, winning the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award with absolute merit.
Best for a longer format or a dedicated movie page. high-art-1998-fylm-mtrjm
High Art is a deep and unflinching examination of the uneasy alliance between artistic integrity and commercial ambition. Lucy Berliner is a genius who retreated from the art world because she found its expectations and compromises untenable: "I made it impossible for myself to continue... I stopped showing up," she explains. Her existence in the apartment above is a form of protest, a retreat into a private, drug-fueled world where she answers to no one and creates nothing. The film strips away the romanticized gloss usually