_feeding_the_friendly_sheep.jpg)
The New York art scene has always been fertile ground for a certain type of movie or novel, and the 1998 High Art fits neatly in that hole. Radha Mitchell plays Syd, an aspiring assistant editor at a photography magazine and, through a plumbing leak, meets Ally Sheedy, her upstairs neighbor.
Sheedy’s Lucy was a photography wunderkind, but burned out a decade before, a trust fund baby happy to spend her days snorting heroin with her German actress lover (a very different Patricia Clarke) and a few friends. Syd doesn’t recognize Lucy’s name, she’s that young, but recognizes art when she sees it. After being shown a book of her published photos, Syd gets Lucy and her bosses to agree to a cover article with new work from Lucy.
Syd and Lucy of course fall for each other. In their society–I assume writer director Lisa Cholodenko intended the title to riff on our mental image of high society–being a lesbian is no trouble but snorting heroin always has a price.
Cholodenko, who also made Laurel Canyon, does an excellent job of showing us the claustrophobic world these women live in. The dialog is really spot on, particularly for some of the secondary characters like Lucy’s genteel Jewish mother (Tammy Grimes) and her bosses at the magazine (Anh Duong, David Thornton).
And who can argue with seeing Radha and Ally getting busy?
