tlaraw.com

Review

Wright is mesmerizing as Jean-Michael Basquiat, a poor Haitian-American graffiti artist who rapidly ascends New York's rarified art world only to lose it all to heroin addiction and an early death. While the premise of blind ambition and the price that is to be paid has been used in films many times before (was Citizen Kane the first?), this story is unusual in the depiction of the title character. For instead of a headstrong, "success or bust" personality, we see an innocent and emotionally fragile artist lured, seduced and used by others -- to the point where self-destruction seems the only escape. The result is an indelible portrait of an artist as a doomed young man.