Mapplethorpe

Though immediately associated with bullwhips up the bung, artist/photographer Robert Mapplethorpe was responsible for some of the more iconic images of the ’70s and ’80s, from nudes of many colors to homo-erotic Polaroids of fistings to portraits of celebrities and close friends, at a time when standard acceptance meant flower petals and fashion poses. Chronologically the film accurately depicts events but time is elapsed by period cars and song selections, as Robert (Matt Smith) meets up with Patti Smith (Marianne Rendón) on a park bench in director Ondi Timoner’s biopic of dick pics! From days at the Chelsea Hotel where Patti was an artist (never identified as poet or rocker to be), muse and mistaken as a love interest in 1969, to Mapplethorpe’s death in ’89, the dichotomy of Robert’s personality is played by Matt Smith with childlike rudeness. He never seems to grasp what others around him are feeling outside of his own limited sphere of influence. Hoping to follow in his brother’s footsteps, Edward (Brandon Sklenar) is forbidden from using the family name and relegated to being Robert’s assistant. John Benjamin Hickey plays Sam Wagstaff, the art curator and Mapplethorpe’s companion in a film that’s exaggerated in places but well-cast nonetheless.

[NR]