A fascinating if fragmented, dreamlike look at the downtown art-music-fashion scene of a yeasty, creative era.
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Downtown '81
Overview
The film is a day in the life of a young artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat, who needs to raise money to reclaim the apartment from which he has been evicted. He wanders the downtown streets carrying a painting he hopes to sell, encountering friends, whose lives (and performances) we peek into.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
A crudely poetic inventory of the people and places about to rock pop culture.
Performances by DNA and the Plastics alone are worth the price of admission.
Gives us a glimpse of the city as it was, suggesting that there was something revolutionary, even inspiring, about those days of not-so yore.
It captures the youthful excitement of a burgeoning creative movement.
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