The Cool School (2007)
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92% of critics liked it
(26 reviews) -
62% of users liked it
(464 ratings)
New York City has long been regarded as the heart of the American art movement, but near the end of the 1940s, as the post-war rise of Abstract Expressionism became the new wave of painting in the United States, a small but determined band of painters, curators, and collectors on the West Coast were… More New York City has long been regarded as the heart of the American art movement, but near the end of the 1940s, as the post-war rise of Abstract Expressionism became the new wave of painting in the United States, a small but determined band of painters, curators, and collectors on the West Coast were determined to make themselves known. Filmmaker Morgan Neville examines the rise of the Los Angeles art scene and how it brought a new and vigorously American slant to contemporary painting in the documentary The Cool School. Neville profiles Walter Hopps and Irving Blum, owners of the Ferus Gallery, which championed the new school of Los Angeles art; sculptors Ed Kienholz and Larry Bell; and painters Ed Ruscha, John Altoon, and Billy Al Bengston, all of whom were championed by the Ferus Gallery; architect Frank Gehry, whose ideas dovetailed with those of the new L.A. artists; and Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell, actors and Hollywood bohemians whose love of the new L.A. art (and willingness to buy pieces) provided crucial support for a struggling movement. Jeff Bridges serves as narrator. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Directed By
- Morgan Neville
- Written By
- Morgan Neville, Kristine Mckenna
- Genres
- Musical & Performing Arts, Documentary
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Mar 7, 2008 Wide
- On DVD
- Jul 29, 2008
- Studio
- Arthouse Films
Critic Reviews
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David Jenkins, Time Out
Morgan Neville's 'The Cool School' is a slickly packaged document of the burgeoning modern art scene in LA during the late '50s and early '60s which sadly submerges its fascinating subject matter in technical clutter and contrived set-ups.
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Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Diverting.
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Manohla Dargis, New York Times
The Cool School, a breezy, lively documentary about a thin slice of the Los Angeles fine art scene in the 1950s, is easy on the eyes, and the ears too.
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John Anderson, Newsday
Cool School is a must for anyone interested in 20th century American art.
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Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
Smart, jazzy and unafraid to deflate egos, Morgan Neville's fast-paced, finely critical study makes for a pungent intro to a movement now esteemed as a key alternative to the New York AbEx stranglehold.
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