This post / half-assed review is coming in kind of late, considering I watched Beautiful Losers over two weeks ago, and the film has been screened many, many places since 2008, but dammit.. it just got released on Netflix / DVD a month or two ago, so here we are.

I’d been waiting on this film to be available in my queue for a while, and alas, was almost positive I’d be disappointed.  While I am not (nor do I profess to be) entirely well-versed on the subject of late 90′s street-art, graffiti and youth subcultures.. something about the perfect storm of  now-established “DIY” east / west coast artist profiles, candid interviews and plausibly esoteric dialogue about the “scene” back then seemed like it could potentially amount to some trite piece of documentary film-making.  But no?  It’s actually kind of good?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not mind-blowing, but it is far more entertaining than I expected. On the one hand, the film takes a tone that is largely self-congratulatory, though at once, anti-heroic in equal measure. On the other hand, that’s not a bad thing here, necessarily. There are some particularly nice moments of vicarious-nostalgia in the form of old footage and photos, along with some terribly asenine, yet profound comments made by many of the artists included.  While the train of thought running throughout the film tends to meander a bit.. as a whole, the work stands up pretty well.   Also it’s worthwhile to see some meat given to the conceptual and visual coherence that a lot of these artists were presumably developing in parallel. I took specific interest in the likes of Geoff Mcfettridge, Barry McGee, and Steve Powers / ESPO.  The work Powers did on the Coney Island signage is particularly wonderful.

In any event, I could go on but the film is simply worth seeing on your own.  It’s quite a treat if you have the time.