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'The Cool School'

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John Anderson

March 28, 2008

With current-day Manhattan the amusement park of trust-fund babies, and artists being driven to the beaches of Coney Island, "The Cool School" should offer a note of encouragement:

Unlike real estate, location isn't the be all/end all of the creative arts, as the subjects of Morgan Neville's hip, percolating documentary proved in postwar Los Angeles (which was to art what Bosnia is to cuisine).

By ignoring the hype, artists such as Ed Kienholz ("Backseat Dodge '38"), via the Ferus Gallery, and tastemaker Walter Hopps remade expectations and a city's view of itself. Good humored and occasionally caustic (New Yorker Irving Karp comes along to burst the Angelenos' bubble every now and then) "Cool School" is a must for anyone interested in 20th century American art.

THE COOL SCHOOL (unrated). With Ed Ruscha, Billy Al Bengston, Irving Blum, Dennis Hopper, Walter Hopps, Frank Gehry. Directed by Morgan Neville. 1:26 (language, adult content). At Cinema Village, Manhattan.