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High Art (1998)
Outstanding yet incredibly tragic
I truly regret never having seen this movie before......
This film (for me) is one of the best films I have even seen. It left me with a true feeling of being on an emotional roller coaster: the obvious "high" of love, ambition, hope; the low of manipulation, betrayal, conceit, desperation, unfulfilled expectations. From movie start to end, the emotions portrayed by Lucy, Syd, Greta, Arnie, et al., felt incredibly real.
I felt swept into the middle of the experiences those "characters" felt. The movie proves that love (as well as life in general) has beautifully positive and chillingly negative connotations: it can be a supremely powerful drug, beautiful, giving, but yet be used as tool of manipulation and power. The ending, although obvious (not in an unfortunate way - there really could only be one realistic ending), was tragic. When you see Arnie in Lucy's mom's car, you knew what was coming out of his mouth before he said it.
Hearing him say it made my heart sink. The dread, despondency, and hopelessness I felt at that moment still lingers today; four days after seeing this movie on HBO. The only piece of art work that left me with an equal feeling of dread was Aquilles' lamentation at the end of the "Illiad". That book is one of my favorites, as this movie is now. The last point I wanted to make is that the subtly of the soundtrack (particularly during the scenes of incredible human interaction such as the last car scene) made this movie work; "She Might Be Waking Up" is a hauntingly superb song.
I thank all of the persons on the screen (Ally Sheedy, Radha Mitchell, Patricia Clarkson, etc.) (and off - Lisa Cholodenko, Shudder to Think, etc.) for breathing life into this drama and for presenting to all of us those facets of human life that makes us the frailest creatures on this Earth. Thank you HBO for showing this truly outstanding piece of work on the small screen.