(Untitled)

Adam Goldberg ("Dazed and Confused") plays Adrian Jacobs, a starving avant-garde music composer.  He struggles with finding an audience for his abstract compositions while his brother, Josh (Eion Bailey) rubs his own success - as a popular painter of hotel and hospital art - in his face.  Meanwhile, both brothers fall for beautiful and eccentric art-gallery owner, Madeleine Gray (the always adorable Marley Shelton), who prefers the integrity of an artist who is unappreciated  and critically-reviled in his own time.  Soon, Adrian and Madeleine are in hipster love and Madeleine is introducing Adrian to a whole new society of demented artists and wealthy collectors... but are these really the type of people Adrian wants to be associated with?  This satirical view on the eclectic and outlandish personalities in the art world tries to be funny, but too often I found myself asking if the filmmakers were looking down at these artsy weirdos or shining a sympathetic light on them.  It never fully commits to either side and subsequently leaves the viewer feeling confused and cold.  There is no one relatable in the film... Adrian is such an arrogant, talentless misanthrope, and Josh is such an egocentric, immature douche that there is no one you can root for.  Madeleine is probably the most likable character - and that is not saying much - in that she is confident, knows exactly what she wants, and is ruled by her principles (though her high standards are off-puttingly self-serving).  In the end, none of the characters grow or have any type of revelations and everyone pretty much circles back to where they first started.  I guess I just didn't see a point to this story, and maybe I wasn't supposed to.  "(Untitled)" is a study of strange, narcissistic people who live in a strange, narcissistic universe that I never wanted to know anything about.


2 out of 5 stars