Synopsis
A look at the life of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe from his rise to fame in the 1970s to his untimely death in 1989.
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Cast
- Matt SmithRobert Mapplethorpe
- Marianne RendónPatti Smith
- John Benjamin HickeySam Wagstaff
- Brandon SklenarEdward Mapplethorpe
- McKinley Belcher IIIMilton Moore
- Mark MosesHarry Mapplethorpe
- Hari NefTinkerbelle
- Carolyn McCormickJoan Mapplethorpe
- Brian Stokes MitchellFather Stack
- Karan OberoiEmilio Acquavella
Recommendations
- 70
Screen Daily
The 12-year project – commissioned by the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation – is evidence that Timoner, who made documentaries before, can craft a nuanced dramatic feature. - 70
Film Threat
Overall, I would recommend seeing this film if you are a fan of Mapplethorpe’s work, the New York art world, or of Matt Smith. He gives a bravura performance which outshines everything and everyone on screen. - 60
TheWrap
Even if budgetary restraints sometimes keep Timoner from fully capturing the time she is re-creating, nothing holds Smith back from making Mapplethorpe come alive again, in every sense. - 58
The Film Stage
Fronted by a fine performance by Matt Smith, Mapplethorpe plays it safe with a subject that’s anything but. - 40
The Hollywood Reporter
This is, in abstract, a bold and brilliant performance, an act of possession, really, and Smith never personally steps wrong in the film’s 96 minutes. But his work, sadly, is continuously undermined by everything surrounding him, beginning with a script, written by Timoner and Mikko Alanne, that frustratingly sticks to the then-this-happened conventions of a standard biopic. - 40
Variety
To rob Mapplethorpe of his controversy is to strip the movie of its dramatic conflict. By doing so, the script (co-written with Mikko Alanne) reduces to a rather banal biopic, reenacting how a scrappy outsider achieved unconventional success. - 40
Rolling Stone
What’s missing are the moments in between that actually make up a life and give it emotional resonance. - 38
Slant Magazine
In Mapplethorpe, the ultimate purpose of the film seems to be the reductive portrayal of the artist as yet another tormented queer destroyed by his tendencies toward vice.
