| From: Arts and Lifestyle | Movies | Wednesday, May 15, 2002 Movie Digest Double Vision CREMASTER 3. Running time: 182 mins. Not rated: Nudity, violence, grotesque images. The enigmatic equivalent of entering someone else's dreams, Matthew Barney's cinematic art inspires both awe and revulsion, often simultaneously. With no dialogue or traditional plot, his films are built around sequences of images and sound that are equal parts gorgeous and grotesque. The last in an out-of-order five-part series, "Cremaster 3" finds Barney dissecting apparent dichotomies like primal urges and civilized gentility. Characters include an amputee who becomes a cheetah, a nude mutant who redefines the term "cavity search," gangster Freemasons and two punk bands. Settings include the Chrysler Building, which becomes a ribbon-bedecked Maypole, and the Guggenheim, which gets smothered in Vaseline. If you're frustrated that you still don't know what the movie's about, you may notbe any happier seeing it. Clocking in at a very daunting three hours, "Cremaster 3" is willfully ambiguous and too challenging to be easily untangled. Elizabeth Weitzman |
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