My review of Helen Klodawsky’s 2008 documentary Malls R Us is now online at Artforum.com. Here is part of it: “Though Malls R Us dexterously balances seduction and repulsion, it’s not necessarily due to Klodawsky’s attempts at neutrality. One senses that her fascination is morbid and her intent exhortative. [...] Nonetheless, at the end of the film there remains something to the claim made at the outset that the mall is a kind of sacred place. [...] What undergirds this ongoing romance with shopping malls, even among those whose critical faculties lead them to acknowledge the enormous fiscal, social, and environmental costs of building and maintaining them?”
The film screens this Saturday and next Monday at the Museum of Modern Art as part of the series “Canadian Front 2009.” Here is a YouTube link to the film’s trailer.
Tags: Canadian Front, Helen Kodawsky, Malls R Us, MoMA
