A Brief History of John Baldessari (2012) User Reviews

Who the **** is John Baldessari?

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 22 September 2016]

"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.

Lively and entertaining take on the documentary

[bob the moo · 12 April 2014]

John Baldessari is an artist who is perhaps most famous for putting colored dots over the faces of subjects in photographs, although he has also done other things ranging from sculptures to text on canvas. This short film interviews and explores him as a man and an artist – sort of.

I say sort of because really the film does not do this so much as it is about itself. The film gives you lots of information about John Baldessari and shows you plenty of his work but the main thing you will take away from the short is not some nugget about the man but more of an impression about this film. Instead of being a regular documentary, this film whips through its subject with rapid editing, asides and a droll narration from Tom Waits; indeed Waits says way more words than John Baldessari does in the whole piece.

The effect is to make the subject engaging due to the playfulness of the delivery and how amusing it is. The editing and on-screen graphics give it an odd feel for what aspects it chooses to focus on regarding John Baldessari but the while was respectful but also playful towards John Baldessari. The energy of the film is a bit sapping and I am not sure the narration and editing would have worked in a longer film but in this short they function effectively together. The film really does nothing regarding exploring John Baldessari s a person or an artist since the delivery is about facts and humor, so I could understand if fans of the man John Baldessari did not enjoy the film or saw it as waste potential, however for the casual viewer it is engaging and fun with energetic narration and editing.