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As diverting as it is, "The Genius" is too long. Its dullest moments are sequences in which [Desmond Denton] tries on euphoric, depressed and psychopathic personalities. And in spoofing the censorship battles of the George Bush Administration, the film also feels slightly behind the times. Among the home-movie-style comic performances, Ms. [Karen Finley] nearly walks away with the film. As Kitty, Ms. Finley is volatile, funny and scary in many of the same ways she is in her outspoken solo performance-art pieces. The Genius Directed by [Joe Gibbons], with [Emily Breer]; screenplay by Mr. Gibbons; edited by Ms. Breer. At the Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1 in the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53d Street, Manhattan, as part of the New Directors/New Films series of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the museum's department of film. Running time: 100 minutes. This film has no rating. Desmond Denton . . . Joe Gibbons Kitty Church . . . Karen Finley Les Alabaster . . . [Tony Oursler]
Few subjects are riper for satire than the New York art world, with its hyperinflated egos and exalted prices for gimmicky trash. And in their goofy 16-millimeter feature, "The Genius," the directing team of Joe Gibbons and Emily Breer has created a ramshackle art-world farce whose charm lies in its not taking itself too seriously.
"The Genius," which the New Directors/New Films series is showing at the Museum of Modern Art tonight at 9 and tomorrow at 3 P.M., is part science-fiction spoof, part SoHo-style home movie. Set in the near future, it imagines a time when Manhattan's downtown galleries have been taken over by the ultra-conservative American Family League. They now bear the names of Wall Street brokerage houses and promote what is called "the new formalism."
The film's most nefarious character is a greedy dealer (Tony Conrad) who hooks his artists on a creativity-enhancing drug. Turned into compulsive painting machines, they grind out canvases of corporate logos.
Into this milieu stumbles Desmond Denton (Mr. Gibbons), a scientist who has discovered a technique for extracting the personality attributes of one individual and transferring them to the brain of another. When Desmond falls in love with Kitty Church (Karen Finley), an artist who was dropped by her gallery for being too controversial, he conceives the notion of transplanting the personality of her boyfriend, Les (Tony Oursler), into his own brain.
Although Desmond achieves the romantic results he had hoped for, he remains unsatisfied. Ultimately, he decides that instead of trying to appeal to Kitty, he will simply assume her personality. Unbeknownst to him, she is the terrorist who has made national headlines bombing Manhattan galleries, and soon he is stalking around SoHo, planting explosives.
Mr. Gibbons, who produced and wrote "The Genius," in addition to being a co-director and one of its stars, has achieved cult popularity with a series of Super-8 comic fantasies with an autobiographical bent, in which he addresses the camera directly. "The Genius" is a technically more sophisticated extension of those experiments. Desmond is not only the central character, but also a combination of host, narrator, lab specimen and loopy alter ego for Mr. Gibbons.
As diverting as it is, "The Genius" is too long. Its dullest moments are sequences in which Desmond tries on euphoric, depressed and psychopathic personalities. And in spoofing the censorship battles of the George Bush Administration, the film also feels slightly behind the times. Among the home-movie-style comic performances, Ms. Finley nearly walks away with the film. As Kitty, Ms. Finley is volatile, funny and scary in many of the same ways she is in her outspoken solo performance-art pieces. The Genius Directed by Joe Gibbons, with Emily Breer; screenplay by Mr. Gibbons; edited by Ms. Breer. At the Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1 in the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53d Street, Manhattan, as part of the New Directors/New Films series of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the museum's department of film. Running time: 100 minutes. This film has no rating. Desmond Denton . . . Joe Gibbons Kitty Church . . . Karen Finley Les Alabaster . . . Tony Oursler
Copyright New York Times Company Apr 2, 1993