Drawing out the Demons directed by David Vaisbord. Friday, April 30, 9 pm, at the Royal. 78 min. Rating: NNN Rating: NNNNN
Once acclaimed canadian artist Attila Richard Lukacs is a tortured soul. He’s totally insecure, overwhelmingly conceited and high on crystal meth. Yawn. To say this isn’t exactly uncharted territory is an understatement, but that’s not really the problem. It’s that Vaisbord, given unprecedented access to his subject as he prepares to move out of his New York studio, is too fascinated with the process to hit the edit button.
Vaisbord’s reluctance to turn off the camera does allow him to capture truly unique real-life characters – the Soho gallery’s young attorney visibly excited by the opportunity to see a real artist’s studio, the mover who diplomatically critiques Lukacs’s homeoerotic paintings. The candid interviews with Lukacs’s devoted parents make for a powerful statement on the importance of family and truly explain why Lukacs might just live happily ever after.