May 25, 2006

"This is so stupid looking, it’s great!"

It’s documentary fest hear in San Francisco, and the Bay Guardian reviews Sketches of Frank Gehry.

…despite all the grotesque, garish fun houses of titanium and glass, his work also radiates a peculiar warmth and friendliness. Unlike, say, Freedom Tower overlord Daniel Libeskind, whose attempts at sentiment come off about as soft and subtle as the rigid rectangles of his horn-rim glasses, Gehry can be intimidating in scope yet warm and fuzzy in feeling. His shiny, undulating surfaces at times seem downright … feminine.

To summarize for you, while the author waxes glowingly on Gehry himself, he finds the film much less inspiring. Perhaps due to the lack of any emotional threads or storytelling mechanisms - techniques that made My Architect such an incredible documentary.

…and a cameo by “the man with glasses” never hurts, either.