The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Fund us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • Tumblr

  • RSS


CultureCinemaMovie reviews

Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat

Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat | Movie review
20 June 2018
Euan Franklin
Euan Franklin
Avatar
Euan Franklin
20 June 2018

Movie and show review

Euan Franklin

Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat

★★★★★

Release date

22nd June 2018

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

TwitterInstagramFacebookWebsite

Jean-Michel Basquiat died at the rock-star age of 27 after becoming one of the most important figures in 20th-century art. Those who were a part of the creative scene during the late 70s through to the 80s will doubtless know his name – or his Banksy-like graffiti alias, “Samo” – but novices are none the wiser. Boom for Real, the new documentary from Sara Driver, tries to focus on Basquiat’s late teenage years – as if in an attempt to do something different from the four other movies made about the artist (including Rage to Riches, released only last year). 

The film starts by setting out the context: 70s New York on the Lower East Side – revealed to the audience in grotty, 4:3 footage from the time, showing skeletons of buildings and addicts shooting up at their windowsills. It wasn’t a pleasant area, but it’s where many American artists of the late 20th century grew up and practised, including Basquiat. Driver tracks his time sleeping in artists’ apartments and poetically graffitiing the sides of trains, just prior to becoming famous for his work. 

The director omits the figure’s troubled childhood, his parents’ divorce and his mother’s committal to a mental institution – leaving those new to the scene tripping in the dark, fumbling for something accessible to cling onto. They have no connection to the person, only the art he made. It’s like making a narrative filled with plot but empty of characters: it just doesn’t work. 

There are large, sluggish sections describing the art scene of the time without Basquiat playing a substantial role. Since the feature doesn’t explore in depth his inspirations (save a mention of William S Burroughs), he often feels like a coincidental presence. Driver can’t seem to decide between telling the story of the setting or the character.  

On top of the filmmaker’s wobbly direction, the piece feels like it’s been cut together by a lethargic editor. Documentaries on punky art tend to move with the pace of an athlete or a gun-fight, whereas Boom for Real barely has a pulse. 

★★★★★

Euan Franklin

Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat is released in select cinemas on 22nd June 2018.

Watch the trailer for Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat here:

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

Cold Pursuit

★★★★★
Sylvia Unerman
Read More

Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don’t Know Me

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Capernaum

★★★★★
Catherine Sedgwick
Read More

Old Boys

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

Happy Death Day 2U

★★★★★
Musanna Ahmed
Read More

A Private War

★★★★★
Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

Jellyfish

★★★★★
Laura Jorden
Read More

The Kid Who Would Be King

★★★★★
Musanna Ahmed
Read More

Instant Family

★★★★★
Musanna Ahmed
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Euan Franklin

Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat

★★★★★

Release date

22nd June 2018

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

TwitterInstagramFacebookWebsite

Tickets

Theatre tickets

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • The Aftermath premiere: On the red carpet with Keira Knightly, Alexander Skarsgård, director James Kent and cast
    Cinema
  • Jeremy Loops and James Hersey at the Roundhouse
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don’t Know Me
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • STEVE O SMITH autumn/winter 2019 collection presentation for LFW
    Fashion weeks
  • Richard Quinn autumn/winter 2019 collection catwalk show for LFW
    Fashion weeks
  • Silently Hoping
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • As a Man Grows Younger at Brockley Jack Studio Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Call Me Vicky at Pleasance Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Equus at Theatre Royal Stratford East
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Jungle at Alexandra Palace
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Call Me Vicky at Pleasance Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Equus at Theatre Royal Stratford East
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Jungle at Alexandra Palace
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • FKJ at the Roundhouse
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Win tickets to see Rip It Up The 60s in the West End
    Competitions

Instagram

Something is wrong.
Instagram token error.
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Fund us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2018 FL Media Ltd

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2018: Osteria Francescana is number one again – full list and map
Meltdown Festival: Manic Street Preachers at Royal Festival Hall | Live review