By Ryan Lewis and Jacqueline Meeks
Matthew Barney is mostly known for The Cremaster Cycle, a series of films he made in non-sequential order over a series of seven years.
The films weren’t narrative films, in the way that most people expect a film to be. Mostly, he makes his films with strong attention to themes, visuals, and rituals. Barney’s most recent film, Drawing Restraint 9 is no different. The movie starts out with a Japanese woman ritualistically wrapping two packages, and ends with Barney and life partner, Bjork, slicing each other to pieces as they turn into whales.
As Barney is both an artist and a filmmaker, it seems that he’s often torn between the two as to his allegiance. Drawing Restraint 9 is not a successful movie, with horribly boring parts, a very thin plot, and absolutely nothing to say for the characters. That this film actually was distributed by IFC Films also seems rather odd. Of course, the audience for this film is the sort that attend independent theatres like the Belcourt in Nashville, where Drawing Restraint 9 played, but the real difficulty is trying to figure out where this movie should be seen. Is a movie theatre the right avenue of distribution? Should there be buttered popcorn and soda available to enjoy the movie? It seems as though Barney is an artist, making films that are long and expensive, but he hasn’t quite found the right place to show them.
Barney’s use of computer-generated effects in the movie completely destroy any aspect of seriousness or honesty it attempts to have. In the opening sequence, post-package wrapping session, the camera descends through a liquid, passing a large whale-like creature and the logo for the movie completes itself. All of this is computer-generated, as are many other special effects in the movie. During these parts, it’s hard not to laugh, as they are so badly rendered and jarring because of their lack of similarity with the rest of the movie.
This all being said, Barney still has some very nice parts in this movie. At times, the visuals alone entrance the viewer. Indeed, since the movie only has about four minutes total of dialogue, the visuals must carry the movie.
Barney still hasn’t found his niche; he certainly has a unique voice, but it’s as if he just can’t find the right words.
