Cremaster 4

NOTE: Quotation marks are used throughout this review, because words like "main character" and "adventure" seem too conventional for such an experimental "movie".

Matthew Barney comes off as pretty immature and pretentious after watching "Cremaster 4", but it's also clear that he has the ability to make great art. I have yet to see any of his other films, and I've made it my mission to watch every single installment of "The Cremaster Cycle" within the next month or so. It may be a tough task, but I will try my hardest. However, if ALL of his "Cremaster" films are just like this one, it's very likely that I will be forced to give up, because this was utterly uncomfortable to sit through.

There were a few things about it I liked. The "main character" was this interesting and creepy goat like tap dancing creature. There's something about his look that really intrigued and fascinated me, and most of his "adventure" (I use this term lightly) was at least mildly appealing to me. I mostly enjoyed the brief part in which eh was underwater, because it contributed to the film's interesting, fantasy like approach.

I didn't like how damn uncomfortable the film made me! At times it was really, really disgusting. But, it wasn't CONVENTIONALLY disgusting. In fact, I can't explain very well why some of the images came across as so icky to me, they just did. The film has an overall uncomfortable atmosphere, but it was also very pretentious. Personally, I dislike using the word pretentious a lot, and I've defended many artist's who have been called pretentious in the past, but there's something about this film that felt extremely pretentious to me. Sexual symbolism is something that is constantly annoying to me when it comes to art cinema. Sometimes, it is done to interesting effect, but most of the time it's show offy and just plain bothersome.

While "Cremaster 4" has interesting imagery throughout, I felt like it was needlessly off putting (and, trust me, I like off putting things! My favorite movie of all time is "Eraserhead"!) and had really pretentious sexual symbolism.

I liked this Cremaster movie the best. First of all, it's nice and short. Second, the visual imagery is simple, yet interesting, not the overkill of Cremaster 3. Lastly, it's probably the most "fun" of the Cremaster films to watch (if you can describe any of them as fun). There's no plot, of course, and it's extremely pretentious, but it held my attention for all 42 minutes, and I'd recommend it as a stand-alone art film. 8 out of 10.

I'm seeing these in numeric order, which I must assume was some sort of intent. So far, the first was important and effective. It mattered to me. The second was overloaded with storysense that showed flat stupidity. The third was similar but overloaded with random symbols. Along the way, I saw "Drawing Restraint" and it was every bit as good as number 1.

The advantage of this is that the symbols are few, the symbolic structures simple and obvious, the posturing plain. Its still uninteresting. He's still not a deep man unless he thinks in images, environments rather than objects.

In this case, there's a race, an underground vagina and a sterile terminus for both.

Boring.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Matthew Barney's "Cremaster 4" is an excellent example of what can be achieved in the area of video art. "Cremaster 4" contains no verbal dialogue, but exists purely in the visual (with audio accompaniment). While not made with the budget and means of perhaps Barney's later "Cremaster 3," "Cremaster 4" is a successful enveiling of various processes that reference issues of gender and masculinity, sports, and Barney's own mythology/ iconography. I believe what makes Barney's work so significant is his dealing with issues from contemporary American culture that artists previously either rejected or deemed unworthy as subject material. While the Cremaster cycle of movies most directly deals with masculinity (the cremaster is found in the scrotum and is the muscle which is responsible for raising and lowering the testicles), Barney also manages to weave in his own commentary on sports (he played football at Yale), video games (see the Guggenheim sequence in "Cremaster 3"; it's self-explanatory), and gender ambiguity. Barney has a keen eye for striking images. The music provided by Jonathan Bepler suits Barney's films very well. If you like evocative images, cryptic sequences of events, and can tolerate the occasionally disturbing, I highly recommend "Cremaster 4."

Glacial pacing and ridiculous mythopeia are more than compensated by the uniqueness of his vision, and the gutsiness of his approach. Well worthwhile for discerning viewers. Lovely music, great sets, but it's really a filmed document of his static art.