Guest Artist

In the mood to watch something different? Like a play really. My thoughts on it? When the teacher is ready, the teacher will appear. Who do you think was the teacher? . Who do you think was the student? We watched on Kanopy app via our Library card. Jeff Daniels, mind blowing soliloquy near the end. Keep going through the slow middle. This review box requires six hundred characters in order to be posted. I already said all I have to say about it without overstating my opinion, and giving spoilers, which I despise. So I am rambling on until I reach the required six hundred characters Are met. I'm intrigued to seeing if anyone watches it after saying this comment.... peace out.

This is a play, my friends. So enjoy it as such and you won't be disappointed at all. Jeff Daniels is, of course, brilliant. And newcomer Thomas Macias matches him set per set. WOW! It's fast and furious in word volley. The payoff is at the end when you find out exactly what .............. well I can't tell you, you'll just have to watch it yourself.

This is a film where two people keep talking and talking. It seems like they never stop talking. It meanders until the final few minutes, when the conversation becomes meaningful. It may be an artistically accomplished film, but it's not for me.

If you're lucky enough to see this film. GO. Jeff Daniels is at the top of his game as is the rest of the small cast. The staging and cinematography is claustrophobic and gorgeous. The themes of "what is art" and "what is an artist" are so well thought out with such a gorgeous/grotesque twist at the end that I was stunned into silence. It's a force to be reckoned with.

Jeff Daniels is the driving force of this film. He wrote the play and plays the lead in the film, and his performance is most of what makes it worth watching. His ability to portray a broken man that is, at his heart, still trying to create, but unable to fully face is demons, is beautifully tragic. What makes his performance even better is the way that he's able to maintain a semblance of decency even when he's vomiting on a train or passed out drunk on a station pew. Harris's character is broken, but he's not unintelligent; he knows how to pull himself up, but he refuses to do so because he is used to the way his life is now. Daniel's range of emotion is really put on display in a wonderful way, and, as he is the one that wrote the words he's saying, it's easy to see why he's so earnest about the words that come through his character. There is truth in what Harris's character says, even though it might not be easy to accept. But while I enjoyed the themes, Jeff Daniels' performance, and most of the writing, I wouldn't go so far as to call it a great film. Macias is a stage manager working at the Purple Rose Theatre Company in Michigan, and it seems to me that most of his acting in this film would feel more at home in a play than it would in a film. Stage acting and film acting are very different beasts. For the most part, Macias holds his own, but there are scenes where I didn't quite buy his earnestness. Also, there were a few audio issues throughout, where characters would fade away and come back in one take, and there were a few scenes of overlapping dialogue in the train station that were simply impossible to discern what was being said.

Glad I discovered this one. I'm always amazed when someone makes their debut at such a high level. I've always loved Jeff Daniels and Thomas Macias was just great in his debut performance. Just a enjoyable story, told well and acted wonderfully!

Taut writing and standout performances make "Guest Artist" a gem not to be overlooked. Daniels is in top form as a tormented, brilliant playwright viewing life from the bottom of the bottle. Newcomer Thomas Macias holds his own as the adoring, aspiring playwright confronted with his hero's feet of clay. Gripping.