SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

People are voting emotionally.

Crappy film

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This documentary follows the lives and careers of a collective group of Do-it-yourself artists and designers who inadvertently affected the art world.I am not sure what to make of this. I like some of the art, and it is interesting to see it getting the proper respect. Other than Shep Fairey, I had no idea who any of these people were. But I am also somewhat soured by the pretentious attitudes of some of them, thinking what they do is important. It probably isn't...So, ultimately, what to make of this? It's not as grand or as timeless as "Exit Through the Gift Shop". I suppose the real test is time. Today (2016) may not be the best distance to view 2008. But by 2018, where will these artists be? Setting trends or in the dustbin?

I can't recommend this film nearly as much as I could recommend Waste Land or Exit Through the Gift Shop, but Beautiful Losers does occasionally have it's moments of merit. The running story of support that each member of this wide artistic circle should be commended. Without the constant support system, this sliver of the art world would have come and gone without much notice at all.But really, that's mostly what I enjoyed about this film. I don't really care about self aggrandizement on such a large scale, especially when the people in question are ( with the exception of one artist) still very much alive and still very, very young. Most of the artists in the film are approaching their forties.These artists are also very lucky to be alive at this time. It appears that everyone was filming themselves, even before making their own art scene, so this documentary is rife with footage of every artist from young kids to adults dressed up as kids.Ho-hum...there's better films about artists and their respective scenes.

First of all, I HATE "vanity films". You know what they are - films made merely to promote this product or that person(s). Second, if you want to get on my bad side, try to validate and romanticize graffiti applied to others' private property. Third, I taught a long time, and it's been almost as long since I had to listen to so many self-righteous, self-impressed, self-centered, uneducated, immature idiots who want to believe their emotions validate their lack of intelligence. Their art efforts were shallow, and, of course, self-aggrandized (you can first spot these types by the time they spend practicing their signature instead of their art), and, are equally admired by a small peer audience of uneducated culture-babies who grew up on placebo intellectualism and Trix cereal. In an especially pathetic move to create associations, they include film maker Harmony Korine as though he is "one of them". (After all, it's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know!) You'll love/hate their classically dimwitted, ironic rebellious insistence to be heroic "individuals" by their group pride in ALL skateboarding, looking alike, making like things, reveling in their refusal to become adults, and speaking with the same lack of language skills and education. You'll want to choke the "LIKE" and "YOU KNOW" right out of them. SPOILER ALERT: Oh, and just in case that doesn't bring you over, one of them dies and the others are given the chance to cash in on THAT emotion too… complete with romantic music sprayed on the surface of their fallen comrade. I nearly puked. What a bunch of jerk-offs who can't keep their spray cans in their pants.

Here is a wonderful little niche genre. Movies are essentially striving to art. Few qualify. Almost no one can manage the complex juggling act that it takes. It just involves too many people, too many risks, too many dependencies on happy accidents. But the fact that film CAN BE art is what underlies all film.What if you cannot make a film that has artistic merit?One solution is that you make a film about artists. The problem is that even if you branch away from film in search of a broader field, you run into the market effect. Art may exist all over, but unless if finds a hook that allows it to catch some market force to sweep it to you, you will never experience it.That means that market forces co- create art, and more particularly the many souls making decisions that are abstracted into this "force." That is a nuanced way of saying that in some respect we are at the mercy of some group we may not like.Here we are introduced to one of those groups. They believe themselves to be artists. Some critical mass of consumers buy the argument. One of them did the requisite dying for her art. All have suffered and sacrificed, as we see documented. I saw this intermingled with documentaries that exposed the corruption in how food is produced, how the food is literally killing us and what we made as this society. This fits, I believe. The tinkering at the edge that these small souls do could never matter to me. But being exposed does. Because it is not about what you accept, but what you choose not to that matters.So the film works on that level. And on another. Harmony Korine is one of this group, one who speaks engagingly. This is an unexpected and effective bridge between film and the sausage machine that makes film. It was welcome. I like this kid and his work. He wonders about geekiness, loneliness and technology the same way I did and possibly would even now. So there is a predetermined familiarity, an acceptance of soul when seeing him.Didn't like his friends though.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.