Product Details

• Actors: Adam Goldberg, Eion Bailey, Vinnie Jones
• Directors: Jonathan Parker
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Screen Media
• DVD Release Date: September 21, 2010
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B003T1KL92
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,466 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "(Untitled)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Written and directed by Jonathan Parker, (Untitled) is a successful satire of an art community. Throughout the story--of two brothers with polar-opposite artistic temperaments who lust after their Chelsea "gallerist," Madeleine Gray (Marley Shelton)--the art and artists who populate the New York art world in real life make sneak appearances to blur lines between the filmic façade and reality. When experimental composer Adrian Jacobs (Adam Goldberg) visits Gray's posh apartment, among the silly art props are Takashi Murakami and Christopher Wool pieces. (Untitled) is a romantic comedy, but the more intelligent story lies in its pitch-perfect portrayal of the characters that comprise art commerce. Everyone--from catty gallerist Gray, to pretentious and phlegmatic blue-chip taxidermy artist Ray Barko (Vinnie Jones), to wealthy, trend-vulnerable art collector Porter Canby (Zak Orth)--plays their roles with an acuity that will make art world participants chuckle with recognition. While the bulk of the plot revolves around Adrian's trials and tribulations as he navigates this abstract culture, his brother, Josh (Eion Bailey), serves as Adrian's foil, an artist who longs for conceptual recognition but is cast off into the realm of hotel-art patronage. Scenes unfold at openings, and the drama happens during studio visits or fights between gallerists, or simply in the privacy of the artists' own homes. Those moments when Adrian and Josh struggle with creation reinforce the idea that ultimately, artists just want to make art. The art world in (Untitled) is accurately portrayed as an absurd game in which there are several definitions of victory and loss. It's up to the artists to invent their own versions of success. --Trinie Dalton

Product Description

A fashionable contemporary art gallerist in Chelsea, New York falls for a brooding new music composer in this comic take on the state of contemporary art.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll Laugh Yourself Silly, November 29, 2009

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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My students at the art school told me to see the movie (they had had free tickets for a local screening for art types, and the writers and directors were there in person to explain it all). My one student Levi was so persuasive that my wife and I went on Thanksgiving weekend as sort of a cultural antidote to the previous evening when we had seen 2012. The theater wasn't exactly packed but the air was filled with howls of laughter, for everything in the movie from the get go is perfectly placed to ensure maximum hilarity. The movie begins with the sort of sight gag that Jacques Tati perfected: morose composer Adam Goldberg arrives at the venue for his performance and is surprised to see the sidewalk outside the box office thronged with hip, excited people. Cut to: bus pulling up; cut to: bus rolling away and no one left on pavement at all--no, one person. Once the concert begins iot's so bad that even Adam's dad can't take it. Right away he rises from his seat and takes the mother with him. (Later, when Adam asks what happened, the mother says, "Your father had to go to the bathroom." "You were gone for forty minutes!") Adam Goldberg isn't the world's most versatile actor, but if you liked him in Entourage playing the egomaniacal cult film director, he does it again here, but with more restraint perhaps.

Madeleine Gray (Marley Shelton) is a tony gallerist who prides herself on showing only what she calls "non-commercial work." It's a little unclear what this means, since her Damien Hirst-like star artist Ray Barko seems to be selling plenty of his repulsive taxidermy pieces, but little by little we come to understand that the bread and butter of the gallery is Josh Jacobs, who paints the kind of art you see in hotel rooms--inoffensive impressionist daubs with misty swirling colors and his signature circles. Madeleine won't give him a show, and secretively makes deals for his work out of her back room, as though it were porn or black market. Eion Bailey plays Josh, the painter deluded about his own talent, who can't understand why Madeleine won't give him a show. Last week we saw Marley Shelton (Madeleine) as the heroine in the 1990s thriller Valentine, and Eoin Bailey we remember as the handsome med student lusting after the teenage ballerinas in the camp classic Center Stage, and so we can report with assurance that the acting of both of them has improved dramatically!

But even they, fine as they are, are overshadowed by the acting of a magnificent team of supporting players. Vinnie Jones, once the scariest man in UK movies, is a revelation as the Damien Hirst type. An actor new to me called Ptolemy Slocum (!!!) plays Monroe, a single-name artist so neurotic he resembles a sensitive plant more than a human being, while Zak Orth is hilarious as a collector who'll ape any trend in contemporary art and whose apartment is a showcase of everything crazy about today's mad art world. Trinie Dalton, writing for Amazon above, nails this one when she praises it for its consistently getting everything right. Okay, there were a few loose ends, and the film finally does Marley Shelton no favors by turning her into a Faye-Dunaway-in-Network inhuman bitch, but it's a film that will someday be seen as superior to any of the Christopher Guest films it superficially resembles.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Savage Skewering Of The Contemporary Art Scene--This Satire Might Be A Little Too Spot-On, February 9, 2011

By 

K. Harris "Film aficionado" (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: (Untitled) (DVD)

The crisp satire "(Untitled)" is a smart and savage skewering of the art world where taste is dictated by hype and collectable value as opposed to passion or merit. If you've ever been to a perplexing gallery show, one that challenges the conventions of recognizable art, you're likely to delight in the absolutely ridiculously (but sadly believable) exhibits within the film. Combined with some equally obnoxious performance art, this is as spot-on in its mockery as you're likely to see! Appropriately populated with an elitism and an air of intellectual superiority, "(Untitled)" absolutely benefits from its incisive screenplay, talented cast, and a specific viewpoint targeting the criticisms inherent in the contemporary art scene. If you are fascinated by this world, knowledgeable about the state of modern art, or participate as a viewer or collector--this film is an easy recommendation. It has an insider's appeal that is undeniable. However, even if you know little about the topic, the film still boasts an outrageousness you may appreciate.

The film is headlined by an inspired Marley Shelton. I have been familiar with Shelton's work, but she has never been particularly vivid for me. Here, though, she shines with much sexiness and great comedic timing as a ritzy gallerist torn between two brothers. She represents one brother as a commercial venture, selling his paintings to institutional settings. His work, all variations of the same abstract theme, is not avant garde enough for a place in her gallery--but it sure does pay the bills! She is intrigued by his aloof sibling, Adam Goldberg, a rather unpleasant sound artist. Goldberg's work generally produces a riotous cacophony of noise which Shelton finds appealing. They are kindred souls as both have an emotional disconnectedness as well as a skewed vision of what constitutes art. This romance, such as it is, is a uniting of narcissists.

The film features a couple of very funny supporting roles--Zak Orth as a trendy collector with more money than sense and Vinnie Jones as an artist dealing in dead animals. "(Untitled)" starts out really strong--as I identified with its absurdity, I absolutely fell in love with the film. It may, however, go on a beat too long. The story suffers slightly in comparison to the set-up. As none of the characters are particularly likable, their personal lives and entanglements were far less interesting to me than the satiric elements in the film. But Shelton, in particular, keeps us on track and the end of her story is far more involving than anything the brothers have cooked up. A solid comedy, with elements of greatness, "(Untitled)" may not be perfect--but it's a very adept and pointed look that challenges the notion of what represents art. KGHarris, 2/11.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spot on, December 1, 2010

By 

Elisa Berger (Addison, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: (Untitled) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

Beautifully photographed, well cast, intelligent script, intriguing music that staged the gallery perfectly for this smart comedy. We were engaged from the opening scene to end credits. Great commentary on interpreting "unique" in a world of awkward unicorns.