Basquiat
Miramax Films | Release Date: August 9, 1996 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
4
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Most movies stress the agony of art (think of Kirk Douglas' Van Gogh in "Lust for Life"). Schnabel's exceptional film honors his friend by showing the act of creation as a natural high. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The New York art world quickly makes Basquiat a star. His work is good (when you see it in the movie, you can feel why people liked it so much), but his story is better: from a cardboard box to a gallery opening! Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Basquiat is an engrossing spectacle, but by the end, as a zoned-out Basquiat stands regally in a cruising Jeep, we realize that Schnabel has reconfigured his story as a kind of ghostly myth, and that we've never completely seen the man behind it. Read full review
80
SalonGlen Helfand
For a first feature, this surprisingly likeable film might just revitalize Schnabel's persona in art circles, as well as make a splash with hip young filmgoers. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
It's also quite energetic -- there isn't a boring shot anywhere, and writer-director Schnabel is clearly enjoying himself as he plays with expressionist sound, neo-Eisensteinian edits, and all sorts of other filmic ideas. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
It's smart and good-hearted and boasts an amazingly good score, but the film is limited by the very private nature of the man it portrays. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Written and directed by Julian Schnabel, himself a gifted painter, this is one of the rare art-world movies that succeeds as both human drama and visual artistry. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Well, the movie suffers slightly from that tendency -- the portrait shows definite signs of airbrushing. But it's rendered with enough intelligence, and performed with sufficient grace, to offer us an occasionally compelling, curiously upbeat look behind the lacquered image and into the complicated self. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
But the film, written and directed by fellow artist Julian Schnabel, is so tender in its affections, these omissions and poetic licenses seem like the embellishments of a good friend. Read full review
70
NewsweekCathleen McGuigan
All the ingredients for a classic doomed-by-overnight-success movie can be found in the trajectory of Jean Michel Basquiat's short, sad life. Read full review
70
VarietyEmanuel Levy
As writer and director, Schnabel should be commended for avoiding Hollywood's biopic cliches about artists, as Basquiat's meteoric rise to fame and tragic death at the age of 27 would have fit perfectly the timeworn formula. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
According to Schnabel, the movie is intended to celebrate the man's life, not to mourn his death, so Basquiat's last days are not shown. It's one of many miscalculations made by the director, because, when the end credits roll, we're left without a sense of closure. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineStaff(not credited)
Schnabel at least manages to tell a fairly coherent story. The bad news: It's not a very interesting story, and Schnabel doesn't have the chops to make it one by sheer strength of filmmaking prowess. Read full review
63
USA TodayMike Clark
The movie meanders without a rudimentary sense of the dramatic, yet it remains intermittently interesting thanks to a surprisingly voluminous cast of usual suspects from the world of independent cinema. [14 Aug 1996 Pg.09.D]
60
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
But the film's central figure remains a cipher, the subject of a colorful scrapbook rather than a revealing portrait. Read full review
50
Washington PostHal Hinson
Despite the movie's suffocating sense of chic Soho hipness, it touches on all the square cliches about the tragic life of the misunderstood artist. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Despite its inadequacies, Basquiat presents a fascinating glimpse of the Eighties art scene, due in large measure to several stunning performances. Read full review
40
EmpireJake Hamilton
Oddly enough, the film scores with Bowie's spellbinding take on the ageing Warhol. Without this comedic but beautiful performance and an offbeat soundtrack, this is little more than wet paint. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A paint-by-numbers version of an artist's life, Basquiat is amusing for all the wrong reasons, especially at those horrible moments when you realize you're supposed to be taking it seriously. Read full review
25
San Francisco ExaminerDavid Bonetti
Schnabel can't decide whether he wants to tell a traditional rise-and-fall morality tale or make an art film. His attempt at telling Basquiat's story straightforwardly collapses under its own banality. Read full review
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