Make Me Famous Review: 15 Minutes or Less
What happens when the time to be the hot artist passes you by?
If you're lucky, as an aspiring creative, you will at some point find a crowd of like-minded individuals at some point in your young adulthood, and everyone will make noise and art together. Life won't come easy – chances are you'll live in a crappy, cheap part of town – but it'll be your creative space, most of you except the token straight-edgers will get frequently fucked up, lots will find life partners, perhaps after cheating or sharing plenty in the early stages. But even if you never score, you're gonna look back on those days as some of your best.
If you're even luckier, you'll be one of the ones whose creative work shines through so significantly that the mainstream world will notice, and one day you might make a living doing it. And then you'll get to the part of life where you realize that just being in the right crowd isn't enough. You always all said you'd make it together, yet those that do make it forget about that. Or find themselves in places where despite success, they can't help anyone else. Only a few get to be the Basquiat or Warhol.
And then, it won't be like the Talking Heads song where you find yourself in a beautiful house and ask how you got there. You find yourself middle-aged and broke because all you know how to do is make art, and even though you may be one of the best at what you do, the demand is just not there. Or if it is, damned if it knows how to find you, or you it. Then what?
Make Me Famous is a title that resonates. For a lot of artists, it is the goal, more so than even making the art itself. The documentary directed by Brian Vincent (an actor usually billed as Brian Kelly, making his directorial debut), focuses on Edward Brezinski, part of the New York art scene in the '80s but never the star, even if he was a genius in his own mind...and to be fair, those of many others. Just not as many as some of the bigger names you now know, whom he knew then.
The documentary uses Brezinski's obituary as a starting point, then hones in on everything it mentions, one step at a time. There's lots of VHS (or possibly Betamax) footage from the era, so we're not forced to rely on oral accounts of Brezinski, though they add flavor – we can see and hear him plenty. Though he doesn't seem to have had a head for business, he was constantly hustling, and got a reputation as the guy who's always handing out fliers at every art opening. This appears to have been a faux pas in the eyes of some, even though everyone interviewed pretty much admits they went to openings for the free wine. Conspicuously missing is '80s music, though there is a minor cameo via background noise of Art of Noise's “Close to the Edit.” Hey, you do what you can on a budget.
An independent documentary with an independent booking plan, Make Me Famous initially feels like a standard artist biography, shining a light on someone who deserves it perhaps more than they ever received in life. About halfway through, though, an interesting wrinkle occurs – the filmmakers learn that the circumstances of Brezinski's death remain unconfirmed and a mystery to everyone who knew him. All of a sudden, it feels like this gives the talking heads involved permission to trash talk him and vent, as if the possibility he might not have died removes any posthumous halo applied. Presumably, a lot of this is editing choices, but its ordered in a way that suggests our processing of grief, and resurgent anger if what we processed turns out to be not what actually happened.
Regardless of what did or didn't, and I'm not going to reveal what Vincent finds, the testimonies and appearances of everyone who survived the era, through addiction and/or AIDS, asks the question of what happens to aspiring artists when it's clear they haven't made it big, and won't? The movie isn't a roadmap to answers, but some of those answers feel carved into the faces of all who were there, each line around the face like another ring in an old-growth tree-trunk. As everyone reconsiders the past when new information comes to light, those of us on the way over the next hill can't help but wonder at our own journeys. If Brezinski were here now, would there be an artist equivalent of Substack where he could build a following again?
His old cohort Andy Warhol offered everyone 15 minutes of hypothetical fame. Here, Brezinski at least manages an hour and a half. He'd surely have loved to show up and down a few drinks at the premiere.
If you're young, consider what you see herein as both inspiration and caution. If you're not, and feel the pangs of loss for what once was, pat yourself on the back anyway. You lived, and you made it here, wherever that is. Now go appreciate someone's art while they're still around to be gratified by your fandom.
Make me Famous is currently booking theaters nationwide – check your local listings.
All images were provided by producer Heather Kelly for the purposes of review – credits and copyrights as noted.
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