Review: 'Art Show Bingo' leaves a lot of empty squares

By Katie Walsh

Nov. 9, 2017 11:20 AM PT

A young man finds a renewed passion for art in the trifle “Art Show Bingo,” written and directed by Matthew Fine. James Maslow stars as Wil, a painter who tried and failed to make it in the art scene in New York City. He’s back home, helping his dad run a self-storage business, when his fair weather ex Susan (Lillian Solange Beaudoin) invites him to be part of an art fair.

Wil loads up his paintings and his mischievous brother Orrie (Jesse Pepe), who’s equipped with cameras to document the excursion, and plunges into the world of the traveling art fair. He soon discovers a community of quirky artists and artisans, and falls for the purple-haired Rachel (Ella Lentini).

“Art Show Bingo” is exceedingly pleasant, but shallow. The characters rely heavily on stereotype, especially Susan, who is pitted as a romantic rival to Rachel in a half-hearted subplot. The main conflicts in the film aren’t all that compelling — Wil expressing to his father that he wants to make his art, while Orrie meddles in his love life, exploiting it for his film.

Throughout this golden-hued but bland story, there’s a constant soundtrack of acoustic indie ballads that string together the often random scenes of Wil making new friends in the art fair world. There are so many music cues that they almost instantly lose their significance. “Art Show Bingo” might be sweet, but it’s dramatically inert.

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