Waiting for Hockney

In a film that chronicles a man who has worked for years for a certain outcome, it’s hard to watch him fail. Waiting For Hockney is a documentary that unfortunately makes you question why it was a story that needed to be told in the first place.

Billy Pappas has worked on his project for eight years. It’s a portrait of Marilyn Monroe, drawn with the most precise detail. Upon completion, there is only one man that Billy wants to share his work with, artist David Hockney. Billy dreams of starting a new movement in the art world and hopes Hockney will help him achieve that goal.

The characters are okay, the idea is all right and everything about Waiting For Hockney is fine. But for a film that tries to build a good amount of suspense around its topic, it falls flat in its mission. There is really no message or ending to Billy’s quest, ultimately leaving the film with little in which to create an ending.

The DVD special features include the filmmaker’s bio and some trailers.  The extra features were as adequate as the film, but I’m not quite sure that is saying too much.

Waiting For Hockney was a decent attempt at an interesting documentary. Ultimately though it fails to ever give meaning to its subject, which, for a documentary, is never a good thing.