[!@#$%!]

so, in spite of having been burned in the past, i went yesterday to see mathew barney's new film @ the ifc center.

i thought the cremaster series, though visually gorgeous, had been a pretentious, boring piece of shit-- still images don't work the same as moving images extended in time. the stills were spectacular! but the movie... *yawn*

enter bjork. i love that kooky girl and i thought if she was involved in it there was a chance it would be a lot less boring. oh was i right!

drawing restraint hits the right balance in terms of beautiful standalone images and a compelling film narrative. it's a slow film, it's a ritual film, and it advances as rigorously and systematically as the ceremony it depicts-- it's a large, widespreading ceremony we're witnessing, and impatient people should not go see this-- but it moves on in a meaningful, spectacular progression of beauty and transformation.

if art is intercourse, cremaster was just masturbation, but the artistic marriage of barney and bjork has produced amazing results. her soundtrack is magnificent-- zeena parkins had a hand in some of it btw.

i can't explain-- i can't. i've seen this only once. i'm still enthralled. but if any of you get a chance to watch this, i hope this impressionistic micro-review prepares you for it somehow.

holy shit! it blew my mind. i had to go sit at the bar and space out for a while when we walked out of it. i'll say no more.