Painter

The cast of Painter uniformly delivers, with moments of ingenuity repeatedly shining through thanks mainly to their commitment. As Joanne, Randle delivers world-weary, extended monologues about the plight of an artist, how difficult the work actually is, and the corrupt business that is the art world. There’s a brilliant and brilliantly awkward scene between the two leads’ artist friend, Yuval (Omri Rose), in which things like the perception of true talent is examined. Chip Sickler makes a memorable appearance as Bruce Courtney, Aldis’s friend who got sick of the art scenes, moved to a cabin in the woods, and got breast implants because, well, why not? Last but certainly not least, Ladin and Randle have great chemistry. His mix of aspiration, naivety, and skepticism perfectly gels with her weariness and obsessive tendencies.

“…Ladin and Randle have great chemistry.”

A guarding angel-turned-demon, Joanne is a force to be reckoned with, living vicariously through Aldis and consequently cleansing herself off old resentments and disappointments. “I’m here to facilitate the inevitable rise of you,” she tells him early on, compensating for her own predestined anonymity. Grant, who wrote and produced Painter, in addition to directing the film, examines how in the art world, art and commerce, sex and love, indignation and genuine inspiration morph, mesh, and intertwine. His film is about a codependent relationship, taken to an extreme; about old resentments and toxic rivalry (“He outdid me at the only thing I had”); about unearned notoriety and the incessant need for self-fulfillment; about the consequences of bullying and how life isn’t fair.

And therein lies the issue. Painter is about a lot of things, where it should have focused on a few and developed those to more deeply-felt conclusions. Towards the second half, it gets so torn between genres, between the things it wants to express and the ways it wants to tell them, it gets an aquarelle-hued whiplash – which is a thing to witness in of itself. Put it this way, love it or hate it, if this were a painting in a museum, Painter would surely make you pause and look closer.