TV Party

So I saw Radiant Child, a new doc about Basquiat, directed by the woman who directed Billy Madison and is married to one of the Beastie Boys and has directed like a million major music videos, like the one with Cher and Beavis and Butthead-- totally awesome 90s chick. Anyway, before she was a 90s chick, she was an 80s chick and a friend to Basquiat. She was in film school and, since he was famous since he turned 20 or something, he was already famous so she interviewed him and then this old never-before-seen interview is the centerpiece of the whole thing. There is some nice rich yellow background wallpaper in the background during the interview, and whatever kind of camera she used, it just looks beautiful. It doesn't hurt that Basquiat is a nice looking man with a fun to watch face. Anyway, he talks about how hard it is to be famous, how racist critics can be and some other things. He was really aware and called people on stuff. He knew so much about art and was just so smart. Like, someone you'd like to talk to, really interesting but not crappy.

But the interview was interspersed with biographical info about him and interviews with people who knew him. There was a great public access show in NYC in the 80s called TV Party and when he was doing Samo graffiti, he came on the show and typed Samo stuff that would run on the bottom of the screen. Really great.



TV has potential, like Ghoul a Go Go, amazing: http://www.ghoulagogo.com/



So, this kid, he gets so famous so fast, he's all in nice galleries and studios but never feels like he is accepted by the museums. He's more NYT magazine than MET, I guess. Too trendy. And he always seems like he knows what's going on, right up until he was like 25 or 26, and I think he really got famous around 20, so that's a good 6 or 7 years. But then he starts doing hard drugs and gets paranoid and just gets really, really sad. People talk about him like he fell down. Such a bummer. Such a nice, smart, neat boy and he just couldn't keep his shit together. Anyway, I loved watching the interviews with people I recognized from their counterparts in the Bowie/Warhol movie. Charming, a lot of them.

So, I recommend this one. It's nice to get out of our time for a minute, and this documentary can do this for you. Although you might cry. Basquiat was so young. Younger than us, you know?