Cremaster 2 (1999)

Director:

Matthew Barney

Writer:

Matthew Barney (writer)

Release Date:

6 July 2005 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Second Part | Mormon Tabernacle Choir | Art | Bee | Cremaster Cycle

Cast

Norman Mailer	...	Harry Houdini
Matthew Barney	...	Gary Gilmore
Anonymous	...	Baby Fay La Foe
Lauren Pine	...	Bessie Gilmore
Scott Ewalt	...	Frank Gilmore
Patty Griffin	...	Nicole Baker
Michael Thompson	...	Max Jensen
Dave Lombardo	...	Johnny Cash (With Drums)
Bruce Steele	...	Johnny Cash (With Bees)
Steve Tucker	...	Johnny Cash (voice)
Cat Kubic	...	Two-step Dancer
Sam Jalhej	...	Two-step Dancer
Jacqueline Molasses	...	French Bulldog
Lenore Harris	...	Fay La Foe (voice)
James Pantoleon	...	Canadian Mountie for Metamorphosis

Runtime:

79 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:18 | USA:Unrated

Company:

Glacier Field LLC

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Creamistress 6: 'The Centered Polenta' (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

The Man in Black

6/10

I only gave this a six, because it was a painful movie to sit through at the time, and I found myself very bored, frustrated, and begging the film to end. But as the film gestates in my mind I've been able to select the moments that did stick with me, and so I may see it again if the entire series is ever released on DVD and change my mind about the film. It made an impression, and that's more than can be said of most movies.

Barney continues his Vaseline-fetish, and I'm not sure what he intends it to represent, if anything, but where in the first "Cremaster" they seemed to exist as molds, the same way the women existed as identical objects from the same mold, here it's much more sexual in nature: when we see Gilmore smother two balls with Vaseline we can't take our eyes away; it's not sexy, but it's certainly sensual (if a malleable inanimate object can be called sensual). That soulless, cold sex is depicted physically with the robotic sex we see from below, where it looks like bees procreating.

There are a lot of individual moments that don't seem to have any relation to one another, but stick with you regardless: cowboy line dancing, a woman at a seance who toes a cowbell, Gilmore being sentenced by Mounties to ride a bull, men in a giant boardroom, and the scene with two of the most famous death metal musicians playing incarnations of Johnny Cash. Norman Mailer, too, should be mentioned, as he's perhaps the most memorable aspect of the entire film. (I haven't read his "The Executioner's Song.") 6/10