Watch Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? For Free

You won't be disappointed!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This one certainly makes good entertainment - which may be half the trouble.It's the story of a California grandmother buying an abstract painting in a junk-shop for $5, and then being tipped-off that it looks like an original Jackson Pollock, worth up to $50 million, if proved genuine.You don't have to dig very deep into the story before it starts to rattle, and not only because California is the natural habitat for wild theories of this sort. There is just too much of the pantomime about it all. The woman in question (Teri) is a long-distance truck-driver, who looks surprisingly genteel for one of that trade, as though she is posing as trailer-trash, with philistine opinions about abstract art - as echoed in the somewhat bowdlerised title of the film. She claims that a picture ought to 'look like something'. Well then, why choose such an unlikely present for a friend, when she could have found a nice harmless landscape or a bowl of fruit? On come the experts, who are quick to remind us about 'provenance' - a word she claims she has never heard before. Thomas Hoving of the New York Met talks in an impossibly conceited way about his status as an authenticator of paintings, clearly acting a snob character-part, to get us taking sides in the big contest: connoisseurship v. folksy fireside wisdom.Well, we certainly do take sides, even sometimes changing sides, as the evidence gradually comes to light. Apparently fingerprints have a lot to do with it, since Pollock despised the brush and palette. They even bring in a fingerprint expert from the Canadian Mounties - another over-theatrical touch. Two of the so-called experts insist that the painting is genuine, but it turns out that both of them were previously jailed for fraud. It is even claimed that the painting doesn't show enough evidence of Pollock's permanent drunkenness on the job!Unfortunately, the closer you look at Teri, the more you conclude that she is just a little unhinged altogether. When she finally understood what provenance meant, she invented a colourful ancestry for the painting, and at least one expert swallowed it whole. Last heard-of, she had turned down a $9 million offer, still holding out for the big fifty, even though authentication is looking more elusive than ever. And it will take more than Joe Beam and his (excruciating) country song about her to get me voting against the smart-and-smarmy experts, as I believe I'm meant to.

Documentary about one Teri Horton, a 73-year-old former truck driver (with a colorful and precarious past) who bought a peculiar painting one day in a California thrift shop--only to discover it might be a lost masterwork from famed artist Jackson Pollock. Horton, eager to sell the painting and get on her feet financially, is unable to convince the skeptical art world of her treasure, with naysayers far outweighing the handful of experts who find evidence the painting is indeed a Pollock (the artist left the work unsigned, though a fingerprint on the back is an exact match to the now-deceased maestro). Elements of Pollock's life are explored and intersected with Horton's own background; she tells at one point of a suicide attempt that went amusingly wrong, and her no-nonsense manner and pithy, seen-it-all demeanor are both funny and touching. Short at 74 minutes, the documentary is entertaining, perhaps minor, though a testament to the stubborn human spirit. Offered nine million dollars at one point, Horton refused to give the painting up, wanting her share of the American dream for what it is rightfully going for on the artists market. **1/2 from ****

This was very entertaining and quite a story. However, many of the documentary's claims about the artworld are unfounded. They interview a small handful of slightly and some totally ego-centric people and label them as "the art world". In fact, most of the art world would love for this story to be true, that a truck driver has miraculously discovered a Jackson Pollack in perfect condition that found its way to a yard sale the whole United states away from where it was originally painted. The documentary neglects to focus on many overwhelming amount of evidence that call the piece a fraud and instead focus on the few details tat suggest its authenticity. This in effect portrays a sense of drama that is unreal. Good film though!

This is a unique and terrific documentary which flows seamlessly along. The story is incredible and the direction is creative.What is most striking is the filmmakers' ability to retain the simplicity of the story while weaving it throughout a feature-length film. To accomplish this in such an entertaining way is the mark of a creative storyteller.The director smartly frames his cast of characters, capturing their idiosyncrasies and succeeding in making a film that is perhaps more about the people than the painting. The result is a colorful and fun movie which exposes how people can affect the world through imagination and personal determination.The film deserves a high rating because it stands out in its genre as a very well done, unique endeavor. Interestingly, the creation of the film itself is as important to the story as anything in the film and, to that end, it proves the power of its own message.