Basquiat Blu-ray

'Basquiat' Director: Julian Schnabel (1996) Criterion Collection Blu-ray | Director-approved 4K restorations of 2024 black-and-white version and 1996 theatrical version

Julian Schnabel’s tribute to his friend and fellow painter Jean-Michel Basquiat is less a conventional biopic than an impressionistic, sensory immersion into the much-mythologized downtown-Manhattan art world of the 1980s.

Jeffrey Wright, in his first lead film role, stars as the visionary artist whose rise from graffiti tagger to art star forces him to confront the glare of sudden fame, along with racism, his own struggles with addiction, and the difficulties of being self-determining and free in America. Bolstered by an ensemble cast that includes a sublime performance by David Bowie channeling Andy Warhol.

Special features include:
- Audio commentary featuring Schnabel and writer and curator Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan
- New interview with actor Jeffrey Wright
- Interview from 1996 with Schnabel and actor David Bowie
- Essay by film scholar Roger Durling