Boogey Woogie is an ensemble comedy about the London art world and all those involved in it.  It’s directed by Duncan Ward with a screenplay by Danny Moynihan, who also wrote the bookon which it’s based. The cast includes such wonderful actors as Gillian Anderson, Allan Cumming, Heather Graham, Danny Huston, Amanda Seyfried, and Stellan Skarsgård.  Trailer and review under the break.

I’m still a little unsure of my feelings for this movie.  I know I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it.  I’m somewhere in between.  And that’s sort of what this movie is.  It’s firmly entrenched in the middle ground.  Now I’m not an art person so I know nothing of how faithful this is to London’s real art scene, it did play an awful lot like a parody that someone unfamiliar with the scene could create using stereotypes however.  It’s interesting to note that the book was set in New York.  I don’t know why the location was changed.  London itself isn’t really played for much.  In fact 99% of this film is interiors with nothing really visible out the windows (if there are any) and so it could have been set anywhere.

There was some weird directing and I’m assuming this also comes from the script.  Just random moments that are just very odd.  For example Amanda Seyfried’s character rollerblades her way around while wearing a short school girl skirt for the whole beginning of the film.  In one scene she’s rollerblading, feels a pain in her side and falls to the ground.  OK the pain in the side is played later, but after she falls she turns around and we get a close up of an asian girl giving her a death stare, for absolutely no reason.  Also we clearly see up Seyfried’s skirt here and are obviously intended to due to the camera angle, blocking, and the bright yellow panties she has on.  There’s also another weird bit with Seyfried’s character later that I won’t spoil, but it had nothing to do with anything (besides the pain in her side) and could have been left out.

I should speak to the reason a lot of you are probably reading this.  The big buzz around this movie regards 2 scenes.  In one scene Gillian Anderson’s character is seen giving a blowjob to an artist in a bathroom.  This scene could not be less graphic and is played entirely for comedy.  So if you’re an old X-Files fan looking to get off, you’ll be pretty disappointed.  The other scene is a lesbian scene involving Heather Graham.  I love Heather Graham.  First she’ll get naked in pretty much any movie (and has such an insanely great body that this is a very good thing), but she’s also a really wonderful actress that’s an asset to any film.  So yes she is topless here for a little bit and there’s some kissing with another girl.  It’s no Boogey Nights. Once again the scene is honestly pretty funny and the director purposely frames it to avoid a lot of the nudity in the scene.

So overall I was not too enamored by the script and the loose plot, it just wasn’t my thing.  But I have to say all the performances were great.  Especially those of Danny Huston as a sleazy art dealer and Stellan Skarsgård as a sleazy art collector (there are a lot of sleazy characters in this film).  Both actors brought a sense of glee to their roles and really shine.  Gillian Anderson, who is married to Skarsgård’s character also does a wonderful job here.  Allan Cumming has a small role but does a lot with it.  And Seyfried and Graham both instantly light up every scene they’re in.

So if art is your thing you very may well get a lot more out of this than I did.  I’d recommend this mostly to those people who are in that sort of world, or fans of any of the cast, as they do phenomenal jobs.  Otherwise you probably aren’t missing much.

If you want to see this you currently have 2 options.  The first is if you live in New York, it’s currently screening at the IFC Center.  For everyone else if you have cable and a movies on demand channel you probably have this under IFC On Demand, which this site will help you figure out and find on your system.