Neville's film shows, in effect, how deliberate the founding of an art movement can be. But also how thrilling it is for those at the eye of the storm.

| Aug 24, 2017

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 17, 2011

The Cool School is a history of the LA art scene which will be most interesting for those who are involved in it.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 15, 2008

Occasionally too reverent, this remains an effective evocation of a vibrant and interesting art scene, not to mention a touching paean to lost youth.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 15, 2008

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.

| Original Score: 3/6 | Aug 15, 2008

The Cool School is neither as lively nor as complete as it could be, but as an introduction to modern art, it's a fine freshman course.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 20, 2008

Breezy doc lives up to its title.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 22, 2008

Veteran documentarist Morgan Neville's illustrated history of the painters and sculptors associated with Venice's Ferus Gallery (1957-1967) is at once lively and analytical.

| May 22, 2008

Makes the case that there's more than basket weaving and freeway driving going on in the seedbed of originality we know as the Great Basin of L.A.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 21, 2008

Sweeps you off your feet with quick-witted visuals and cleverly used archival footage.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 4, 2008

Definitely proves that, contrary to certain opinions, Los Angeles is not a cultural wasteland where fine art is concerned.

| Apr 1, 2008

Surf's up in Southern California as the modern art world invades Nixonville and Reagan City in the 1950s. A fascinating look at the start of something big: modern art in Los Angeles.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 28, 2008

Thoughtful and thought-provoking.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 28, 2008

Diverting.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 28, 2008

The Cool School, a breezy, lively documentary about a thin slice of the Los Angeles fine art scene in the 1950s, is easy on the eyes, and the ears too.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 28, 2008

Cool School is a must for anyone interested in 20th century American art.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 28, 2008

Documentarian Morgan Neville takes an appropriately lively, left-field approach to The Cool School's eye-opening history of the Beat-era Left Coast art scene -- a lesser-known chapter in the story of American modern art.

| Original Score: A- | Mar 26, 2008

All told, and well told, this is essential history.

| Mar 25, 2008

Largely avoids sharply delineated portraits, with its focus on the scene at the expense of individuals, ultimately resulting in a documentary that doesn't rise above the functional.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 25, 2008

Though designed more for the devotee of the arts than your average moviegoer, the film is still apt to enthrall even the uninitiated who wouldn't know a Jackson Pollock from a Willem de Kooning.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 25, 2008