This film is massively boring and pretentious. There is only one good moment when a sailor shaves Mr Barney's(think the purple dinosaur-less pretense) eyebrow. The music is relentlessly cloying-it is sad that Bjork, someone with so much inner beauty, has been brought down to pretentious falsity in her art. The pomp of the tea service makes a beautiful ritual seem vapid. the mythology and culture are not respected in this film they are lifted. Not just from Japanese culture but from another filmmaker...(stay tuned) In a perfect "art imitates life" moment-the crew of the ship finds a giant piece of sh*t. Which is what the audience found in the theatre. There are some set pieces which are very composed and arty without heart---then…prepare for spoilers-I'm talking to you MR BARNEY.The Emperor has no clothes! Mr. Barney you have been outted! I have seen Jodorowsky's HOLY MOUNTAIN. And your thin, fake veil of BS has been lifted. You have stolen your images your style and your ENTIRE ART CATALOGUE from this man. Now that HOLY MOUNTAIN has been released FINALLY let's hope the powers that be at the Art Councils of the world STOP FINANCING YOU! Poor Jodorowsky-lost in a financial battle with the Beatles Lawyer when he is the Lennon/McCartney of film-making. And BTW while Jodorowsky is the Beatle-YOU ARE THE MONKEES! A cheap thin soulless rip off only liked by facile kitschy college freshmen. And BTW I am a filmmaker. If you are interested in making a reality film-I will legally fight you in a ring defending Jodorowsky-you, defending outright thievery.

It you are Japanese or know something about Japanese mythology and/or whaling culture in japan, then this movie will mean a lot more to you than others. I know most people who watch this movie will come out of the theater ferociously hating Matthew Barney and be turned off of modern art, but for me, this movie was grounded in ancient Japanese traditions. And to have witnessed it, even if it is bastardized from it's Japanese roots, is a fortunate event. I'll attempt to write the plot as I saw it. Barney and Bjork were invited onto the whaling vessel as guests. They begin their journey by transforming into sea spirits through several elaborate and beautiful (however long and confusing) ceremonies and rites of passages . This all happens while the whaling crew perform their duties on the symbolic whale. In the end the journey takes a gruesome turn and the transformation is complete. This is by no means an easy movie to sit through, be forewarned. However, I believe the value is in your furthered exploration into the subject of Japanese culture, ritual and mythology. Be sure to check out the exhibit at your local museum if it comes to your town. It is absolutely amazing to see.

I can appreciate what Barney is trying to achieve, but after sitting through this last night at a college movie house, I couldn't help but think...when is this gonna end? A very long and ponderous two hours and fifteen minutes. I had only seen a part of Cremaster 3 on DVD and thought I knew what to expect. That said, experimental films such as this are better digested in small increments. There are a couple of beautiful/horrible images...including the title sequence (no kidding), but if you go into this expecting any kind of plot or meaning, then you are in for a long, snooze-inducing ride. I managed to stay awake for the whole thing (if that's a compliment) but more often than not, I was waiting for some kind of meaning or narrative...big mistake. Among the collection of images are a very ornate gift-wrapping ceremony, the creation of a disgusting dish of what appears to be petroleum jelly slabs formed with a cookie cutter and sprinkled with shrimp (this is served to the crew of the ship which is shown throughout the film), a large blubber cheesecake with a large tentacle turd placed in the center of it, and the mutual evisceration of Bjork and director Matthew Barney which eventually culminates in some bizarre kind of communion, followed by their transformation into whale-like creatures. The soundtrack is at times beautiful and annoying...sometimes even maddening. At one time, there is a song being sung by Bjork to go along with the ephemeral rituals being played before us, and at other times there is just a constant droning of a high-pitched instrument, which we see a mysterious woman playing at the beginning and end of the movie. If this sounds like it doesn't make sense, that is because is DOESN'T! If this sounds like your cup of tea, then you will absolutely LOVE it! If this sounds like something that you probably won't like, then stay far away from it, because you will most likely walk out of the theater during the halfway mark like several people at the screening I attended. This is the very definition of an art film. You get from it what you take from it. But otherwise, there really isn't much there, other than a few oddities and constant construction and deconstruction rituals. I'm glad that there is a place for films such as this, but I can't say I would want to sit through it again. However, I can't say I wouldn't want to see one of Barney Cremaster films from start to finish and compare it with this. I think, perhaps now that I know what to expect I might enjoy something like this more. To give you an idea of what kind of comprehension factor this film has, I probably would've liked it better if I had gotten stoned. Then again, it could've felt twice as long as it was, and then it would've REALLY gotten ponderous. Definitely not for everyone.

WARNING!!! SPOILERS THRUOUGHT!!!After having seen bits and pieces of Mathew Barney's Cremaster cycle, one expects more of the same. But then he offers up Drawing Restraint 9, and I came away, well, blown away. Cremaster was such a convoluted, mythological universe, that I tend to find it unlikely that anyone could produce a body of work that is equally accomplished, thought out, and sprawling. Watching the opening scene of Drawing Restraint, I think of Chris Marker's filmic essay, Sans Soleil. Mostly because of the reference to Japan's Holiday, Coming of Age Day. The dancing seems to be lifted right out of Marker's film. The pacing of both films is actually pretty similar, as is the content. As Marker chose seemingly disparate images and concepts to illustrate a larger commonality in his films, Barney conflates his ideas about artistic restraint with a fantasy about whaling.An extraordinary chain of events occurs in this film. A convergence of mythic proportions, in true Mathew Barney style. A whaling moratorium is lifted in Japan. Bjork and Barney's "occidental guest" characters arrive, inexplicably, by prearranged fishing boat trips in the middle of a Japanese ocean on a whaling ship. The combination of a violent storm, loosely Japanese and heavily stylized costuming, a large petroleum jelly sculpture, a riveting and very aquatic tea ceremony, some bizarre dismemberment, and a giant raw ambergris log, culminate in a human-to-whale transubstantiation for these occidental guests. The pacing of the film is generally slow for its first two thirds, with beautiful imagery of a twenty year old whaling vessel seductively competing against this restrained pace. Then the storm comes, the petroleum begins to consume the entire ship, and there is no more restraint. At its core, this is what the film is about. Barney's obsession with restraint, and his fearful desire to let it go. The Coming of Age Day dance speaks about evolution, from childhood to adulthood. This evolution is echoed throughout the film. The first song, composed by Bjork and Barney, speaks of a "million year old fossil", which is then lovingly wrapped, and sent as a thank you for lifting the whaling moratorium (again, restraints are released, allowing for a thriving economy and plenty of food in a previously depressed community, ethical issues of whaling notwithstanding). The petroleum and steel sculpture, The Field, goes through a constant evolution, from liquid petroleum, to something a little more solid, changing shape, having a spinal cord like object removed from it, briefly housing the ambergris log, then utterly falling apart and being melted down into liquid again. All of this preparing, changing, waiting, is the restraint part of this equation. Then something, in this case ambergris and a storm, catalyzes a strange metamorphosis, and Bjork and Barney turn into whales. Barney must have undergone a similar process with this work, this ninth part of the Drawing Restraint whole being the product of that internal metamorphosis I am imagining for Barney. In all its grandiosity, all of Barney's timid pomp, its actually a very honest expression of fear. Fear of release, accomplishment, potential energy, and the unknown.