Not an Artist: Portraits of Persistence

At some point in their journey, creatives of all media ponder the same hypothetical: How far would you go to realize your vision? What would you sacrifice? What would you risk?  In the new comedy Not an Artist, we follow a group of artists taking the ultimate gamble to unlock their true potential, or perhaps lack of it.

“Is Time Your Friend, or Your Enemy?”

Alice (Alexi Pappas) is part of a group that won a spot in a very exclusive artist-in-residency, run by a man known only as The Abbott (RZA) and his butler (Robert Schwartzman). Different types of media are represented: Alice is writing a YA fantasy audiobook series; Wesley (Haley Joel Osment) is a painter and Claire (Ciara Bravo) as well; Kimmy (Rosalind Chao) a playwright; Dante (Gata) does miniature stop-motion videos; Indigo (Cleopatra Coleman) is a sculptor desperate to step out of her mother’s shadow, and Christopher (Clark Moore) is a bilingual poet. Much like the rest of the group, The Abbott also once felt a calling to become an artist. He did everything he could to achieve his dream, only to come to a hard realization: “I’m not a fuckin’ artist.”

Choosing instead to strike it rich, he now uses his wealth to run this artist-in-residency for a select few at a time with a strict set of rules. Each artist is provided with a room, meals, and a studio specifically designed for them and their desired project. However, in The Abbott’s quest to “accelerate the inevitable,” each artist has only thirty days in which to finish their project and achieve their true potential. If they succeed, they are awarded $100,000 to begin their life as an artist. If they fail, they are bound by contract to never again be an artist or even refer to themselves as such. As the clock starts, Alice’s father (co-writer Matt Walsh), who has been camping nearby in an RV, finds himself forced to crash the compound and becomes a guest of The Abbott’s, further complicating the already high-strung dynamic.

“You’re so Lucky, You Have Your Whole Life to Suffer.”

Co-Directed by Pappas and Jeremy Teicher, and written by them along with Walsh, Not an Artist is a comedy driven by its cast with a number of comedy veterans sprinkled throughout, including Dan Bakkedahl, Paul Lieberstein, Kyle Mooney, and Betsy Sodaro. Pappas, Teicher, and Walsh have concocted a premise primed for comedy, and the cast truly sells it. A lot of humor comes out of the artists, their creative process, and their mindsets. Some attack their craft with emotion and intensity; others find themselves paralyzed with fear.

RZA brings an intensity to The Abbott that is hilariously juxtaposed to his deadpan visage, and every member of the residence is distinctly delightful in their performance, with Pappas, Osment, Walsh, and Gata particularly standing out. As they make progress and the work takes shape, so too does their view of themselves. How deep can you dig? How vulnerable can you be? What do we bare for our art, and does pushing ourselves to that limit make us happy? Is being an artist a calling you can’t escape, or is it just a phase like your mom said it would be?

Not an Artist: Not a Bad Time

Comedy diehards will be drawn to this film for the name recognition of the cast alone, but fans of character-driven ensembles will get a kick out of this as well. The humor is understated, a satire of artists and their eccentric creative processes without relying on big gags or physical comedy. Not an Artist may not be the Mona Lisa, but to quote one of the characters: “Some paintings are curious enough for me to go deeper and go ‘What’s that?’” This film has that quality. 

Not an Artist is available via VOD starting January 31st.