Review of Art and Craft (2014) by Mjhmoviereviews — 07 Nov 2014

Art and Craft follows the story of one of the most infamous art forgers in the U.S.: Mark Landis. But he doesn't do it for profit - he does it for kicks, convincing museums that he has originals, donating them and getting them to put his fake work on display. The documentary also follows the people who were working on stopping him, and how for one man Landis became a sort of obsession.

The documentary isn't purely about forgery, it also touches on the theme of metal illnesses. Mark Landis is schizophrenic among other things, and that's part of the reason he does what he does. The man who was chasing him developed OCD while chasing Landis. The documentary does a good job showing how it effects their lives and what they do.

The feature also does a good job showing what goes into making the forgeries. One of my favorite parts of the film was getting to see Mark "sell" a painting to a library. They believed him and he donated it to them, leaving it hanging on the library wall.

One of my main problems with the documentary is that the crew appears to be intruding on Landis' life. He seems like the kind of guy who just wants to be left alone, and is even reluctant to go to a gallery displaying his work.

My other issue is the editing. It's made clear Landis watches a lot of television, so the filmmakers decided to insert occasional shots of TV shows that were at times random and confusing. Sometimes they made sense but others just threw off the pace of the movie.

Overall rating: 2.5 out of four stars. It is dull at parts, but overall it's pretty good.

Reference scale:

Dogfights of the Future < Art and Craft < The Battered Bastards of Baseball.