Cremaster 3 (2003)

Giant cavemen stalk the meek through a rear projection landscape. Driverless automobiles smash a predecessor into a chrome mouth piece. Such is the wordless world of Matthew Barney's CREMASTER series. The five-part epic culminates, oddly enough, in CREMASTER 3, one of a myriad of peculiarities in the avant-garde series that moved from the museum circuit to packed art houses.

Intrigue leads to mayhem for taskmasters toiling in a highly stylized Chrysler building. At the forefront is a blue collar man (sculptor Richard Serra) whose work in the immaculate building is rewarded with a horse muzzling, knocking his teeth out. A bizarre operation is performed, replacing his jaw with a chrome implant. While this proletariat's innards seep out, a wayward savage (Barney) appears. Upon proving his worth, he also is bestowed chrome, a medal. A violent conclusion hammers home the idea of man's fruitless search during a chaotic Guggenheim hootenanny complete with a kick line, a nude cheetah lady (double amputee Aimee Mullins), and a war between punk bands Agnostic Front and Murphy's Law. This narrative of Barney's three-hour series finale is less important than juxtaposition and iconography in a film obsessed with medallions, triangular blocks, and the pentagonal Chrysler logo. More »

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