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Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (2007)
Tomatometer
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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
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 3.5/4 |
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. Full Review |
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3.5/5 |
Click to read the article Full Review |
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3/4 |
It's the only place you'll find clips of his notorious masterpiece Flaming Creatures (1963), and for that alone it's worth seeing. Full Review |
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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. Full Review |
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B+ |
If modern art-lovers want to understand what the Jack Smith experience was like, Jordan's documentary may be their best chance. Full Review |
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3/4 |
This 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. Full Review |
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 2/4 |
There is invaluable material here, but also a lack of context for the wonderfully outre footage. Full Review |
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Mary Jordan's documentary is an impressive, fascinating achievement. Full Review |
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4/4 |
Alternately bizarre and inspired, but an appropriate tribute to an uncompromisingly experimental innovator in the field of cinema. Full Review |
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An intriguing, and profoundly frustrating, view of the New York underground hero. Full Review |
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A |
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. Full Review |
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3.5/4 |
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. Full Review |
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3.5/5 |
It'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.
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In 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. Full Review |
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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. Full Review |
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Smith's own work, here montaged for easy digestion, is already too rich and sumptuous to require any further frosting. Full Review |
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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. Full Review |
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2/4 |
The film tries a little too fastidiously to piece together a life its owner tried quite brazenly to shatter. Full Review |
CommentLatest News for Jack Smith and the Destruction of...
August 28, 2008:
Bio-pic revisits checkered cinematic career of unrecognized genius. 
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April 12, 2007:
Critical Consensus: "Hoax" Shines; Force Is With "ATHF"; "Disturbia" Mixed; "Pathfinder," "Stranger" Not Perfect; "Redline," Slow Burn" Not Screened
This week at the movies, we've got snoops ("Disturbia," starring Shia LaBeouf), temps ("Perfect Stranger," starring Halle Berry and Bruce Willis), Mooninites... More...
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