Pulp Fiction Art: Cheap Thrills & Painted Nightmares (2005)

Director: Jamie McDonald

Starring: REALLY talented artists whose names I've never heard of...until now

More Info: IMDB

Plot: An intimate look at the extraordinary, often ostracized, and now largely forgotten artwork of Pulp Fiction Magazines. For the first time in a documentary film, we take a look at the world of pulp fiction with exclusive images, and interviews with some of the very artists who created these amazing popular culture masterpieces.

My Rating: 8/10

Would I watch it again? Yup


Neat-O. That sums this up nicely. It's 60 minutes of fascinating material covering a little-known and interesting subject. Ever since I was a kid I've seen pictures of pulp magazines and novels from the 30s-50s and I've always marveled at the artwork. They're very colorful and spark the imagination at an instant glance. They compel you to pick them up. It's very much like the now lost art of movie posters...but that's for another day...


Very little of the original artwork has survived. We discover that these really talented artists were poo-poo'd at the time and their output (even admittedly by some of the artists themselves) was considered low-brow, sell-out trash. There's the story in this documentary about one particular publishing house that needed to make room for one reason or another and they literally put hundreds of these paintings by the roadside for the trash collector. Such a tragedy. You'll find lots of interesting info here along with interviews of some of the artists, collectors and admirers. And then there's the plethora of beautiful artwork created to capture your imagination...oh, and to sell magazines!


I have to mention this. The narrator's delivery, despite having a pleasant voice - one that's perfect for this sort of thing, is most annoying as he scoops upward onto A LOT of words making it seem like he's trying too hard. I'm only saying this because it really is very annoying and once you pick up on it you cannot get away from wanting to giggle every time it happens. Still, it's the material and subject that's important here and, despite this somewhat minor issue, it's a total gas to watch.