Mapplethorpe (2018)

MAPPLETHORPE  (2018)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Ondi Timoner
    Matt Smith, Marianne Rendón, John Benjamin Hickey, 
    Tina Benko, Brandon Sklenar, Rotimi Paul
A sketchy, scrappy biopic  tracking the relatively short life and career of one of the 20th century's most influential photographers, from his early days with Patti Smith to his death from AIDS in 1989. There's a gritty look to the cinematography that works especially well in the first couple of reels, when Robert and Patti are bunking at the Chelsea Hotel and scuffling around New York, the period Smith chronicled in her memoir "Just Kids". "You might not know us yet, but we're going to be big stars," Patti tells the proprietor at the Chelsea. "Only today we don't have any money." He gives them a room, accepting Robert's artwork as collateral, and they do become stars, Robert for his black-and-white portraits, delicate images of flowers and raw depictions of the gay leather scene. Fame, fortune and controversy follow, and it's only a matter of time before an uninhibited lifestyle catches up with him. Played by former Doctor Who Matt Smith, Mapplethorpe comes across as a guy with no self-control and an unlimited passion for his work. He can be thoughtlessly (or deliberately) cruel to those around him, but what he can capture with a camera is exquisite. A devil and an angel, rolled into one. He won't live to be 50, he says at one point, and he's right about that. He just wants his work to be there when he's gone. You can't help wishing he'd hung around longer - you wonder what he might've accomplished if he had - but it's not hard to see why that's not the way things worked out.