If modern art-lovers want to understand what the Jack Smith experience was like, Jordan's documentary may be their best chance.
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04/14/07
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Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (2007)
83
%
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Reviews Counted:18
Fresh:15
Rotten:3
Average Rating:7.3/10
Theatrical Release:Apr 11, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: Jack Smith was a legendary figure on the New York avant garde art scene, and his FLAMING CREATURES is rightly hailed as a masterpiece in its field. This documentary gives an overview of Smith's... [More]
Starring: John Waters, Ken Jacobs, Judith Malina, Jonas Mekas
Director: Mary Jordan
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Reviews for Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
1 - 19 (sorted by source)
Mary Jordan's documentary Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis is part unsparing explication of a life story, part love-stuck personification of Smith's working philosophy.
11/30/07
Top CriticIn some ways Smith's art became commodified only after he died and his estranged sister gained control over his work, though that did lead to this documentary, a fascinating introduction to his special world.
04/10/07
Top CriticIt's the only place you'll find clips of his notorious masterpiece Flaming Creatures (1963), and for that alone it's worth seeing.
04/19/07
Alternately bizarre and inspired, but an appropriate tribute to an uncompromisingly experimental innovator in the field of cinema.
04/12/07
The intoxicating documentary Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis, directed by Mary Jordan, is a love poem to the New York City of the '50s and '60s, when Smith, the visionary of camp, more or less invented performance art.
04/11/07
Top CriticMary Jordan's documentary is an impressive, fascinating achievement.
04/12/07
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06/05/07
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04/25/07
In Jordan’s documentary you see the roots of camp as distinctly melancholy and yearning, a world of the spirit that can never be made flesh.
04/09/07
Top CriticThis invaluable record contains a treasure trove of clips from Smith's hard-to-see and still striking films, plus comments that were culled from hours of interviews with this flamboyant pioneer.
04/13/07
Top CriticIt's gratifying when an influential underground artist is profiled in an accessible documentary. For that reason alone, Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis is worth seeing.
04/11/07
There is invaluable material here, but also a lack of context for the wonderfully outre footage.
04/12/07
Top CriticAn intriguing, and profoundly frustrating, view of the New York underground hero.
04/11/07
Top CriticThe film tries a little too fastidiously to piece together a life its owner tried quite brazenly to shatter.
04/09/07
Jordan’s film is a glorious visual achievement in its own right, as well as part of the rancorous ongoing dispute over Smith’s legacy.
04/14/07
Thank heavens for Mary Jordan's vibrant, funny and tragic documentary, an entertaining hodgepodge of artifacts and impressions of a "creature" whose influence on photography, drama, film and art is still felt today.
04/11/07
Helmer Mary Jordan does an extraordinary job sorting through extensive material and gathering a who's who of collaborators and disciples, offering an insightful and incisive portrait of a self-destructive paranoid artist.
04/10/07
Smith's own work, here montaged for easy digestion, is already too rich and sumptuous to require any further frosting.
04/10/07
1 - 19 (sorted by source)
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