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Film The Cool School

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These days, referring to the LA art scene as a contradiction in terms is an unfounded cliché. Back in the early 1950s, though, Los Angeles was still a cultural wasteland outside of (and arguably within) the Hollywood studio system. The documentary The Cool School pieces together how med-school dropout Walter Hopps and artist Ed Kienholz formed an actual Southern California art movement, starting with their Ferus Gallery in 1956. Narrated by Jeff Bridges over a '50s jazz score, cats like Dennis Hopper, architect Frank Gehry, and Ed Ruscha weigh in on an artistic bohemia that emphasized whimsy over suffering, without sacrificing any aesthetic or intellectual integrity.

– Lisa Rosman

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