Film's title speaks with silence

The Putnam Theater in the Redfern Arts Center recently showed the film “Untitled,” directed by Jonathan Parker and co-written by Catherine DiNapoli from Friday to Thursday.
As for the film itself, “Untitled” is a witty and comical satire about people involved in the New York City’s art scene.

The title “Untitled” is not a failure on the director’s part to come up with an appropriate name for his film, but a comment on the pieces of art one would find in an urban art gallery, such as a light bulb hanging from the ceiling and going on and off or a red dot on a white wall, a piece that could not be called anything but “Untitled.”

This dryly-humorous film is appealing to any person who has ever been criticized by someone calling themselves a critic.

“Untitled” pokes fun at pretentious city snobs who are repulsed by so-called “commercial” art but marvel over three dead possums hanging from a chandelier, calling it genius and opening their wallets to have the road-kill hang in their own homes.

Unlike other satirical forays into the film world, no character in “Untitled” is spared from this type of mockery. Adrian Jacobs (Adam Goldberg), a struggling avant-garde musician or ‘sound artist’ is the main character. Jacobs is an usual artist, struggling to find his niche in the shadow of his overly-successful painter of a brother, Josh (Eion Bailey).

Adrian’s music consists of a woman pretending to cry and making fake karate noises while he kicks a metal bucket, tearing paper and slamming piano keys with his elbows.

When Madeleine (Marley Shelton), the owner of the art gallery that sells his brother’s work, attends one of Adrian’s concerts, she insists he play his unusual sound at an opening at her gallery.

Though Adrian is confronted by and annoyed by critics asking him if his work can really be called music, he is quick to mock the ‘art’ found in the opening at Madeleine’s gallery. He quickly becomes the pretentious yet uninformed (or over-informed) snot that frustrated him so many times before.

Madeleine could easily be constructed as the villain in “Untitled” because she only shows art she has personal interest in and keeps her gallery running by selling Josh’s bland pastels to doctor’s offices.

Parker does a decent job of making her a sympathetic character. However, she is someone who truly believes in the art she displays and sells, yet she has to make a living to support herself. The frustration of any type of artist shines through in this piece. In this case the director is poking fun at the type of people who would see his film and write their articles about it in the paper.

He is making fun of critics who see the films for free and then complain about the un-consistency of the director or they hackneyed plot they had seen so many times before. These critics then praise and marvel over shots of a man walking in a circle or a woman staring dreamily into a camera for ten minutes and calling it a masterpiece. Critics like these are the target of the satire of “Untitled.”

Though “Untitled” is obviously meant to bash critics on the director’s part, it is not bitter. In fact, at times it is very poignant and sweet, not to mention comforting to those of us who have taken the brave leap to pursue a career in any type of art.

All in all, the feature had an apparent and alluring aesthetic charm, not to mention its laudable comical themes and inventive commenting on those bombastic twits who feel it is their burden to offer personal dictums on any original work that comes their way.

Anna Mansager can be contacted at amansager@keeneequinox.com.