Last night I re-watched a movie I hadn't seen in around twenty-five years, which I guess I could say about a lot of movies since I'm an old man, but this one hit me because I can't believe it was made that long ago. It's Lisa Cholodenko's High Art, which, inexplicably, came out in 1998. It's Cholodenko's first film, and it launched an impressive career. It's sometimes reduced to "that movie that former Brat Packer Ally Sheedy did lesbian scenes," which is a crime because it's quite a good film. It's as much a critique of our relationship with high culture as it is a lesbian love story. Radha Mitchell (as Syd) is quite good as the aspiring editor who gets dragged into the circle of Sheedy (as Lucy Berliner), a damaged but talented photographer. Patricia Clarkson plays Greta, Lucy's girlfriend, is typically great, this time as a drugged out German actress (as I've often opined, nobody has better sense of a good script than Clarkson). The damages of drug use - and of failed aspirations - are huge parts of the story. Highly recommended.
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