The Cool School

Morgan Neville’s ‘The Cool School’ is a slickly packaged document of the burgeoning modern art scene in LA during the late ’50s and early ’60s which sadly submerges its fascinating subject matter in technical clutter and contrived set-ups. Abstract expressionist works by artists such as Billy Al Bengston, Ed Kienholz and Wallace Berman – all regular exhibitors at LA’s pioneering Ferus Gallery run by Irving Blum and visionary curator Walter Hopps – are spoiled as idents and subtitles whiz across and around the screen, making the testimonies of Dennis Hopper, Frank Gehry and Dean Stockwell feel slightly redundant.