''Magical Universe'' is a 2013

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by filmmaker Jeremy Workman about reclusive

outsider artist Outsider art is art made by self-taught or supposedly naïve artists with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrates ...

Al Carbee who created elaborate dioramas and collages featuring

Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. ...

dolls. The title of the film is taken from Carbee's own voluminous writings about his wondrous art. The film grew out of Workman's short film ''Carbee's Barbies'' and encompasses the final years of Carbee's life, a period in which Workman became Carbee's closest friend and his only link to the outside world. First presented at numerous film festivals, ''Magical Universe'' was acquired by IFC Films and released theatrically on October 31, 2014.

Synopsis

Al Carbee is a true American original. An 88-year-old recluse living in Maine, he devotes nearly all his time to creating extraordinarily elaborate works of art from

dolls. This captivating documentary, filmed over the course of the director's decade-long friendship with the artist, goes inside the mind of the enigmatic Carbee to reveal his rich, wondrous, and sometimes heart-wrenching inner-life. An eye-opening portrait of an all but unknown artist and an inspiring testament to the triumph of the creative spirit, ''Magical Universe'' is a moving tribute to a one-of-a-kind visionary.

Release

After winning several film festival awards, ''Magical Universe'' was acquired by theatrical distributors IFC Films and was released in theaters on October 31, 2014. It was subsequently made available on Netflix in May 2015 as well as on the IFC Films Unlimited streaming platform on Amazon Prime. In the summer of 2016, ''Magical Universe'' was featured at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris at the Louvre as part of their

exhibit.

Critical response

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, the film holds an approval rating of 63% based on 8 reviews, with an average rating of 6.12/10. In the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'', Michael Rechtshaffen described the film as "whimsical... affectionate...A tender portrait of the artist as a weirdly gifted, wildly prolific, and strange man" and made the film a Los Angeles Times Critics Choice. Lauren Wissot of ''

Filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

'' magazine suggested that the film is "crafted in a style that brings us practically inside the brain of the 88-year old outsider artist." And during the film's national theatrical run, the ''Village Voice'' made it a Critics Pick with film critic Abby Garnett saying that Workman "captures the poignancy of Carbee's drive to create ideal images...This story is about tenderness and empathy."

Awards

* Woodstock Film Festival, Best Documentary Audience Award (winner) * Woodstock Film Festival, Best Documentary Jury Award (Honorable Mention) * Salem Film Festival, Audience Award (winner) * Las Vegas Film Festival, Special Jury Prize (winner)

References

External links

Official Website
* *{{Rotten Tomatoes, magical_universe_2013
Interview with director Jeremy Workman
on ''Tribeca Film'' Documentary films about visual artists 2013 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about photographers 2013 films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films