Popular reviews

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  Review by Murtada Elfadl ★ 1

  This is the type of biopic where real historical people introduce themselves by stating their full name the first time they appear.

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  Review by jorgemol ★★★★½

  While Lily James was shooting MAMMA MIA! 2, boyfriend Matt Smith was making out with boys in leather. Which film is gayer?

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  Review by davidehrlich ★½ 6

  There is a lot of penis in Ondi Timoner’s “Mapplethorpe,” a streamlined, straightforward biopic about the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. For those familiar with the late artist’s work, that may not come as much of a surprise — many of his most famous images center on male genitalia, rendering plump and veiny dicks with the same religious awe that Michelangelo sculpted “The Pietà.” On the other hand, it’s rare to see any peen in a major motion picture (or a minor one, for that matter), let alone dozens of them in close-up. Not since the State of the Union have so many flaccid tools proudly displayed themselves in one place. How sad that it still feels transgressive to show them at…

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  Review by Enfant du Siècle ★★ 1

  Mapplethorpe is a rather conventional and demure look into the the life of such a unique, controversial and fascinating figure. The film does not reflect the passion he felt for his work, it does not take us into his psyche, shows his creative process or even his fascination for the BDSM; it simply recounts the life of this man in a linear and hasty way without really examining who he was. Matt Smith offers an adequate performance, but it is not enough to compensate for the many flaws, a mediocre script, and uninspired direction as well as the more than obvious limited budget. In the end, Mapplethorpe is another film about the life of a tortured artist that lacks substance, depth and personality; it's a real shame that the transgressive spirit of this fantastic photographer has to settle, at least for the time being, for such forgettable and bland work.

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  Review by Anna ★★★½ 2

  Ondi Timoner's Mapplethorpe is underrated in my opinion. She explores Mapplethorpe's life in a manner I viewed as provocative, respectful and enlightening (which is a hard combination to achieve). She did not shy away from sexuality, and some of the hotter scenes were done in an artistic way I'd never seen before. Gay sex is underrepresented in film, and I think that may have made a lot of people uncomfortable, even if they don't want to acknowledge it. I may be unrefined in my film knowledge, but I thought Timoner did an impeccable job, especially with constraints in representing his relationship with Patti Smith. Some people may have been upset to see so little of Patti Smith, but this film is about Mapplethorpe, not Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith. I would watch this film again.

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  Review by B E R T ★★½

  There’s just so much missing here. A biopic about Robert Mapplethrorpe should be completely filthy and lurid and sexy, what it shouldn’t be is what this film is. On the plus side, Matt Smith is tremendous in the title role, especially the second half of the film. He’s a very good performer, a total chameleon of an actor, it’s just a shame that his performance is buried in such a lacklustre movie. Overall, it’s not completely horrible, but it’s not especially great either. Average at best.

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  Review by John ★★½

  The film isn't terrible but nothing special, a run of the mill biopic that doesn't capture the energy of the subject matter. Matt Smith's ok though.

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  Review by Lisa ★★★ 2

  I knew little about Robert Mapplethorpe going into this film. However, I now realise I was familiar with many of his stunning black and white photographs of celebrities such as Grace Jones, Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Still, I was unaware of his somewhat controversial works of the nude male form. Mapplethorpe tells the story of his later life from when he first picks up a camera in the late 1960s until his death from HIV/AIDS complications in 1989. Surprisingly, Patti Smith was his girlfriend from 1967 to 1972, it was nice to put that connection together, and I'm so pleased the film covered their relationship.

  Matt Smith and Marianne Rendón as Patti Smith were excellent in their…

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  Review by DANIEL ★½ 4

  I think this film could have worked if you did two things; 

  one — put way way more dick stuff in it. just tons of dick stuff. I wanna see floppy monster dongs and pringle can chodes and skinny pencil cocks all over the place. just fuckin hog up; it’s Mapplethorpe for fuck’s sake. I don’t even like dicks and I thought there was a shameful lack of hoggin wild in this. I saw a Mapplethorpe exhibition ages back and let me tell you, it was more veiny todger and one-eyed yogurt dispenser than anything else, but it was also art.

  two — tell Matt Smith that while he is the world’s handsomest lace-up boot and yes he saved the Doctor from the ghastly repetitive sniveling of Tennant, he can’t do a Long Island accent for shit and it’s super distracting. 

  that’s it, dicks and diphthongs! boom I fixed your shitty biopic!

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  Review by PatriciaTaxxon ★★½ 1

  Another biopic that doesn't value the artist in question beyond their capacity to have their life story fit into a 90 minute picture, as evidenced by the fact that it centers the work of Robert Mapplethorpe and yet no one on set thought it'd be appropriate to shoot in black and white.

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  Review by JD ★★½

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  Day ten of JD's PridePalooza and the film tonight is 2018's Mapplethorpe. I didn't know a lot about the life of the film's subject but it sounded interesting so I decided to give it a go.

  The film depicts the life of controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (Played by Matt Smith).

  Although it was an interesting way to tell a biopic, this could have gone further in talking about the subject's life. The writing does a decent job of exploring his passion for art but it could have looked more his legacy as an artist. Another aspect that was brought up and then left before briefly being picked up again right before the end was his relationship with his former girlfriend…

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  Review by Mike Kennedy ★★ 2

  Ondi Timoner is best known as a documentary maker and Mapplethorpe, her first scripted feature film, was clearly a labour of love - she wrote, directed, edited and produced it through her production company, Interloper Films, over a 12 year period.

  Mapplethorpe was a complex character and there is not yet a print biography that does justice to his full life and times. I love Patti Smith's Just Kids (2010), the story of their time together when they were young struggling artists in New York. The day before he died, she promised him that she would write that story, but it only covers the period from 1967 to 1972, after which she pursued her own career on the West Coast…