room102
Watching "Big Eyes (2014)" really made me want to see a GOOD biography movie about a painter. This is the 3rd or 4th I'm watching this movie (my first watch was at the cinema).This movie is so much better than "Big Eyes" - everything about it is great: Direction (Ed Harris himself), cinematography, score, writing. The entire cast is wonderful, especially Ed Harris - he's just excellent and all the scenes of him painting are very realistic (it's obvious he studied Pollock back and forth) - although he was only nominated for an Oscar and Marcia Gay Harden actually won one.I really like the direction/writing/acting approach of everything presented very realistically and natural, like people really act - there's no smooch and people smiling all the time, like you usually see in movies. Everything is straight forward and real. It's pretty noticeable in Marcia Gay Harden's character (acting and speech). Pollock is a broken character, with lots of damages, problems and imperfections - very far from the usual Hollywood presentation.I like the way they present Pollock as a passive character and Lee Krasner as the active of the two, doing all the decisions, pushing Pollock forward without hurting her own ego. If you want an example of a strong female character in a movie, she's a good example - I hate how people throw this term for just about any silly/weak/meaningless female character in other movies.The last part of the movie is a bit weak, but other than that it's great.This movie is one - if not THE - best movie biographies I've seen about a painter.
SnoopyStyle
Jackson Pollock (Ed Harris) is famous with a Life magazine cover in 1950. The movie flashes back to 1941. He's a drunk staying in Greenwich Village with his brother and pregnant wife. Artist Lee Krasner (Marcia Gay Harden) shows some interest and becomes his lover/supporter. His brother moves to Connecticut. Jackson breaks down which is why he can't be drafted into the war. Lee takes Jackson home acting more and more like his manager. His work eventually gains the attention of art collector Peggy Guggenheim (Amy Madigan) who gives him an one-man show in 1943. Lee and Jackson decides to move to a country house on Long Island away from the drinking and doing more work. His paintings are still not selling and then the Life article happens. Lee and Jackson have a roller-coaster relationship and then he has an affair with Ruth Kligman (Jennifer Connelly).Ed Harris directs a mostly straight forward biopic of Jackson Pollock with a few fascinating scenes of painting sessions. His directing style doesn't necessarily project Jackson mental breakdowns but his acting is able to bridge the gap. Ed Harris is not the most imaginative director visually but it is overcome by good actors doing good work. It is a good debut directorial effort.
thinker1691
Jackson Pollack was an early, but very influential American artist of the 1950s. Based on a Novel written by Steven Naifeh the film is now directed by Actor/director Ed Harris. Audiences across the world can now enjoy this semi-biographical movie dealing with the impressionist artist. Taken from the last segment of his life, viewers observe how Pollack begins with one direction of Impressnism and developed a personal style of his own. Ed Harris is not only impressive as the real-life artist, but as director, he also imbues his troubled character with a personal passion for art, something the real Pollack often exhibited. The movie does stagnate with the constant barrage of intrusive friends and family members. However they are also the same influences which criticized, encouraged and guided his work. The acting is superb with stand-out performances by Ed Harris, Marcia Harden, John Heard, Val Kilmer and Jeffrey Tambor as Clem Greenberg. For audience members this is a wonderful film and I would easily recommend it to all. ****
maryszd
I always try to catch this film when it's on TV, but I always stop watching before its terrible ending. Jackson Pollock was a great artist, thanks in no small part to his shrewd wife, Lee Krasner. She was the intermediary between this disturbed and ultimately psychotic man and the sophisticated New York art world that never knew quite what to make of him. Compared to today, the postwar New York art scene looks quaintly innocent. All it took was some pontificating by Clement Greenberg and a spread in Life magazine to make Pollock's career. Ed Harris plays Pollock well, and the scenes where he actually paints are fascinating. The film also does a does a good job of showing how artists actually lived in fifties in New York. By today's standards, it was a grubby life in dilapidated walk-ups painted in the harsh, cheap white paint favored by cheap landlords. But it was possible to be poor and still live in Manhattan. In a way, Krasner did her job too well. Pollock was emotionally unprepared for his fame and it sent him (and ultimately poor, innocent Edith Metzger who had the bad luck to be in his car at the wrong time) over the deep end. Pollock is an honest movie that is obviously a labor of love on the part of director Harris and the actors whose performances are excellent.
AD
