Director:
Matt Brookens
Studio/Production Company:
Art Pain Films
Genre:
Thriller
Sub-Genre:
Black Comedy
Length:
Feature
Awards Won:
Audience Choice Award --- Sunscreen Film Festival
Website:
http://artofpainmovie.com
Score:
4.5/5
A multi-genre blast, “Art Of Pain” is part loving homage to zombies, ninjas, comics and comic book artists, part cheeky send up of all of the above and is ultimately a glorious celebration of low culture of a certain variety that makes its own rules, sets its own agenda and, for the most part, succeeds in everything it sets out to do.
Matt Brookens deliriously loopy film is clearly by, for and about fans and fabricators of certain
kind of cheeky, macabre style of entertainment. Set primarily in a Chicago movie house that hosts
midnight screenings of cult films and, not surprisingly, a guest appearance by cult film icon,
Troma impresario Lloyd Kauffman (played by Kauffman himself) the story concerns the dynamic
between theater employees Jack, an aspiring painter, his best friend Nick, an aspiring comic book
artist, his girlfriend Sharon, an actress currently appearing in a production of “The Scarlet
Letter 2. When a narcissistic, thuggish and constantly motorcycle jacketed Ninja-reject Marcus
joins the team at the theater he insinuates himself into the lives of his new co-workers, with
decidedly mixed results.
There is no way to accurately describe the seamless intersection of camp, gore and spoof that
Brookens and company achieve in this film, with surprisingly high production values despite a
presumably modest budget and, overall, solid performances, “Art Of Pain” is a delight, even when
if it does totally work all of the time, it is the type of movie that establishes itself early on, to the
point where the audience knows that something cool is always around the corner.
Matt Brookens
Studio/Production Company:
Art Pain Films
Genre:
Thriller
Sub-Genre:
Black Comedy
Length:
Feature
Awards Won:
Audience Choice Award --- Sunscreen Film Festival
Website:
http://artofpainmovie.com
Score:
4.5/5
A multi-genre blast, “Art Of Pain” is part loving homage to zombies, ninjas, comics and comic book artists, part cheeky send up of all of the above and is ultimately a glorious celebration of low culture of a certain variety that makes its own rules, sets its own agenda and, for the most part, succeeds in everything it sets out to do.
Matt Brookens deliriously loopy film is clearly by, for and about fans and fabricators of certain
kind of cheeky, macabre style of entertainment. Set primarily in a Chicago movie house that hosts
midnight screenings of cult films and, not surprisingly, a guest appearance by cult film icon,
Troma impresario Lloyd Kauffman (played by Kauffman himself) the story concerns the dynamic
between theater employees Jack, an aspiring painter, his best friend Nick, an aspiring comic book
artist, his girlfriend Sharon, an actress currently appearing in a production of “The Scarlet
Letter 2. When a narcissistic, thuggish and constantly motorcycle jacketed Ninja-reject Marcus
joins the team at the theater he insinuates himself into the lives of his new co-workers, with
decidedly mixed results.
There is no way to accurately describe the seamless intersection of camp, gore and spoof that
Brookens and company achieve in this film, with surprisingly high production values despite a
presumably modest budget and, overall, solid performances, “Art Of Pain” is a delight, even when
if it does totally work all of the time, it is the type of movie that establishes itself early on, to the
point where the audience knows that something cool is always around the corner.