Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures

"Each chapter of Mapplethorpe's biography - his Catholic boyhood in Queens, his renowned romances with Patti Smith and the collector Sam Wagstaff, his devotion to and aestheticizing of s/m - is given the same cursory treatment."

"The controversial artist may have worked in black and white, but his life is anything but in this terrific portrait by the 'Inside Deep Throat' duo."

"The thing you learn from this in-depth doc is how much of a trail he blazed."

"Look at the Pictures: It restores a sense of the forbidden to Mapplethorpe that's been lost in the years of worship."

"It forces viewers to take long looks at his most controversial imagery, proving that he still has the power to provoke, seduce and enrage."

"The directors do well when allowing Mapplethorpe's friends, family, colleagues, and the artist himself-via archive interviews-to frame the conversation."

"At least the film allows viewers to come to their own conclusions on these aesthetic questions; the subtitle "Look at the Pictures," does not tell us what to think."