If I needed to keep this to a quick review, I would have to say, Loved it - check it out, dude. However, the journalist in me wants to explore, dig and roll it around more - to take it and give it a larger voice because I think it represents a lot of what is going on in society today in all it's eerie, beautiful, scary, colorful, oftentimes violent bold strokes.

After seeing this well directed film, I couldn't't help but ask myself, "what makes these graffiti artists tick? Do they have a set of commonalities that drives them to pursue these activities? While there seems to be different levels of specialities - ranging from tagging to muraling, they seem to share an underlying sense of low self-esteem, craving recognition, to make a name for themselves. As "aerosol artists", they draw attention by "being bad" - flirting with felonious behavior. It almost seemed like they need to strike out in this way to prove to even themselves that they exist. Sad, yet fascinating...

For me, Infamy was educational, enlightening and entertaining as the stories of the main characters (six graffiti artists found in cities like New York, Philly, San Francisco and Baltimore) unfolded. I marveled with a comparison being drawn between the carvings of Mt. Rushmore and the art that is graffiti ("Who gave them permission to carve up the mountain?")

The interviews revealed that this progresses from a tag to a throw-up which seems to be a signature with a flourish. This signature can start out basic with extended loops, stars and underlines and they can grow from ground level to as high as the artist can reach. Then, it seems a larger, more elaborate version of this is called a "burn" that can expand to a "piece" and these are usually very colorful and found in rather prominent places like retaining walls along highways, overpasses, sides of buildings, billboards and railroad cars.

It seems that some graffiti aficionados will occasionally make a huge statement and go for a full mural - how they can pull this off without getting caught every time is rather curious. One guy said he spent 35 nights finishing one mural! Talk about obsessive dedication.

Another commonality seemed to be that the more this graffiti is done, the more it proliferates at the hands of those growing more jaded to such end results as their constituents falling wounded, if not dead, in the process. They doggedly pursue their goals, taking great pride in their pieces - stating that the better it's done, the longer it's likely to stay up as a testament to their talent. Many do what they call "benching" - sitting and waiting for the trains to admire the rolling slideshow of their distant compatriots colorful conquests.

I strongly recommend Infamy - it gets right to it, stays on track, compels you to ponder, form an opinion and then, just maybe, wonder how you formed it.

Further, it is thoroughly thought provoking, controversial and substantive. Infamy creates a strong socio-political-psychological statement that I believe deserves more public attention. Hopefully, films like this should increase what needs to happen first - awareness of the real issues behind, under and around it. Now, it seems to collectively rank somewhere between the pesky issues of homelessness and guns in schools...

Infamy (2005) was directed by Doug Pray and distributed by Image Entertainment. It will be shown at 7pm on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at the Denver Film Society.

For more information, please visit --

http://www.denverfilm.org/filmcenter/detail.aspx?id=21922&FID=43

GRADE - A+