Man in Camo

Sporadically interesting but mostly self-aggrandizing, Man in Camo chronicles the life and times of avant-garde artist Ethan Minsker and the impact his work has had on a myriad of like-minded individuals. Filmmaker Minsker admittedly does an effective job of exploring his own upbringing and early days in the New York City art scene, and it’s worth noting, certainly, that Man in Camo boasts a small handful of interesting, compelling stretches – with Minsker’s exploration of the Antagonist Movement, which provides struggling artists a forum to show their work, standing as a high-water-mark within the proceedings. But the picture is, by and large, dominated by drawn-out, repetitive sequences that contain frustratingly little in the way of context (ie the viewer’s never entirely given a reason to care about Minsker or his accomplishments), which only perpetuates the feeling that Man in Camo has been designed to appeal solely to Minsker’s preexisting fans and followers. The movie’s failure is a shame, ultimately, given that Minsker is obviously not lacking in talent and creativity – the movie is littered with frenetic (but impressive) bits of animation, for example – and yet it remains glaringly apparent from start to finish that a more objective eye could’ve opened the material up to neophytes.

** out of ****