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High Art combines two too-trendy topics: lesbianism and heroin. Critics will jump to point out--reasonably--that the subject matter is already passé, but beneath the Obsession chic is an intelligent film in which relationships operate like barter, a system that fails when you don't have anything good to trade. Syd (played pouty and perplexed by Radha Mitchell, like Renee Zellweger in Jerry Maguire) has a decent, if dull, job as an editorial assistant at Frame, a photographymagazine. She lives in a cool apartment with her cute, nice, smart boyfriend, James (Gabriel Mann). Everything in her life is coasting along smoothly, and she knows it. One day, she notices a leak in her ceiling and traces it to the bathtub of her upstairs neighbor, Lucy (Ally Sheedy), a famously reclusive photographer who lives with her glamorous German junkie girlfriend Greta (Patricia Clarkson) and hangs out with an entourage of good-looking heroin snorters. Suddenly, the barter system kicks in. Lucy has artistic credibility, unpredictable habits, exciting sex and drugs to offer. To the up-and-coming Syd, James' pleasant conversation and laid-back stability become increasingly less valuable commodities. Ironically, in her youthful enthusiasm and sincerity, Syd is giving Lucy exactly what she's getting from James. When she eventually rejects him, she is set up to be rejected in turn. Writer/director Lisa Cholodenko is adept at unveiling the bizarre flaws in generally kind humans, and she effectively communicates the subtle levels of selling out. More important, she had the good sense to cast Ally Sheedy. The 36-year-old actress, known best for '80s teen classics including The Breakfast Club, War Games and St. Elmo's Fire, brings elegance and realism to Lucy's experiences with androgyny, drug addiction and the fleeting nature of fame. Sheedy was treated for a prescription-drug addiction in the early '90s and hasn't acted much since. She shares with Lucy a difficulty in coping with early success. In this role, Sheedy shows flashes of her young talent. Her outbursts are gruff, flirtatious, intimidating and inviting. At the Sundance Film Festival this year, High Art won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, and the New York Times reported that filmgoers predicted Sheedy would make a comeback. Let's hope they're right. |
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