A chronicle of the career of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, from his rise to fame in the 1970s to his death in 1989 at the age of 42.
Release Date: March 1st, 2019
Not Yet Rated |1 hr 42 min
Plot SummaryA chronicle of the career of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, from his rise to fame in the 1970s to his death in 1989 at the age of 42.
Cast: Matt Smith, Marianne Rendón, John Benjamin Hickey, Brandon Sklenar, McKinley Belcher III, Mark Moses, Carolyn McCormick, Brian Stokes Mitchell
Director: Ondi Timoner
Production Co: Interloper Films, Boston Diva Productions
The 12-year project – commissioned by the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation – is evidence that Timoner, who made documentaries before, can craft a nuanced dramatic feature. show more
Even if budgetary restraints sometimes keep Timoner from fully capturing the time she is re-creating, nothing holds Smith back from making Mapplethorpe come alive again, in every sense. show more
This is, in abstract, a bold and brilliant performance, an act of possession, really, and Smith never personally steps wrong in the film’s 96 minutes. But his work, sadly, is continuously undermined by everything surrounding him, beginning with a script, written by Timoner and Mikko Alanne, that frustratingly sticks to the then-this-happened conventions of a standard biopic. show more
