The world of avant-garde photography is captured very well by Lisa Cholodenko in High Art. We understand Lucy Berliner's desperation with the world of success, money and publicity--how she fled New York ten years before the story begins, angry with how her name and talents were being used by the business people around her, and how she is very wary of starting afresh with this risky assignment for Syd. To add to the burden, she has a drug problem and a relationship with an unemployed (and unemployable) German actress and heroin addict named Greta.
Lucy's mother is not much help either, reminiscing about the old days in Europe(pre-war) when a Jewish woman faced rejection by her family for lesbianism, and with a German to boot! The few laughs in the movie come mainly from Tammy Grimes grilling Ally Sheedy about her relationship with "the German." ("Greta, mother. Her name is Greta!").
If there is a flaw in the casting, it is the choice of Radha Mitchell as Syd. She isn't tough enough to be climbing the slippery ladder of the visual arts in New York; you'd expect to find this wispy-voiced girl selling perfume at Bloomingdale's. The other actors are just about perfect. Gabriel Mann as the boyfriend who's increasingly disturbed about Syd's spending time with Lucy; David Thornton as the slippery Harry, always on his toes, currying favor with the boss; the boss herself, Anh Duong, who started as the receptionist at FRAME years ago and knows all the secrets of the art world.
Lucy's mother is not much help either, reminiscing about the old days in Europe(pre-war) when a Jewish woman faced rejection by her family for lesbianism, and with a German to boot! The few laughs in the movie come mainly from Tammy Grimes grilling Ally Sheedy about her relationship with "the German." ("Greta, mother. Her name is Greta!").
If there is a flaw in the casting, it is the choice of Radha Mitchell as Syd. She isn't tough enough to be climbing the slippery ladder of the visual arts in New York; you'd expect to find this wispy-voiced girl selling perfume at Bloomingdale's. The other actors are just about perfect. Gabriel Mann as the boyfriend who's increasingly disturbed about Syd's spending time with Lucy; David Thornton as the slippery Harry, always on his toes, currying favor with the boss; the boss herself, Anh Duong, who started as the receptionist at FRAME years ago and knows all the secrets of the art world.