"A Brief History of John Baldessari" is a 6-minute documentary short film from 2012, so it will have its 5th anniversary next year. This was made by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, the filmmakers from "Catfish" and, very recently, "Nerve". The narrator here is Tom waits who is more known to me than the man that this little film is about: John Baldessari. Maybe you need to know him to be able to appreciate the comedy in this little movie. But if you don't (like myself), then it is really fairly difficult, even if the guy we see seems to have some decent comedic talent and timing. Waits is okay as the narrator without staying memorable at all. I am just not convinced by anything I have seen from the filmmaking duo and their work here cannot increase my appreciation either. A pretty strange little film that is not often funny, not even often enough for such a short little movie. I give it a thumbs-down, which has nothing to do with Baldessari himself (who elevated the material I guess), but with the not too funny concept and project as a whole. Watch something else instead.
