Many people are going to be standing in line at the theaters this Friday dressed up as their favorite Sci-Fi characters, speaking Klingon, and having light saber duels. Oh relax, I’m just kidding Star Trek devotees! I know that last one belongs to your fandom arch-nemeses. Anyhow, I too will be there. But I’ll be standing in line for a different movie dressed up as my third favorite artist. Hey, why is that any more bizarre than crinkly forehead guy or the dude with the elf, um I’m sorry… Vulcan, ears?Leaving the costumes aside, I will admit I am a bit hesitant about this film. Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali? That would not have been my first choice. He may have been dreamy in Twilight as Edward Cullen, but that was a sullen teenage vampire, not an iconic artist. Let’s just hope he doesn’t do “crazy eyes” the whole time. Then again, I shouldn’t rush to judgment. Salma Hayek didn’t scream Frida Kahlo either, but that movie turned out to be excellent (and that scene animated by the Brothers Quay… wow). For Ed Harris though, there was no question. He looks so much like Jackson Pollock it seemed he was born to play the self-destructive, alcoholic paint splasher.
I haven’t any qualms about the other actors because I haven’t the foggiest who they are. But character-wise they are portraying the poet Federico Garcia Lorca and the director Luis Bunuel. Yes, a film about an artist, a poet, and a director. I realize how nerdy this is.
Which actually brings up an age old question no one has bothered to ask before: if Star Trek nerds and art nerds got in a fight (say… at a theater), who would win? For my money, I’d take the art nerds. They can shoot beams of condescension from their eyes that are far more real and crippling than any toy phaser set to stun.
posted by jw
