Synopsis
This energetic, punk-fueled docu-comedy traces the meteoric rise and fall of a bizarre visionary and the art market that birthed him, but director Michael Sládek focuses mostly on present-day Kostabi and his obsession with getting back on top. Interviews with art world figures and vintage clips of Kostabi's outlandish television appearances are entertaining and insightful, but Con Artist's best moments come in the abundant tag-along footage Sládek shoots with the artist. While getting as close as one can to a man who's been called "the black hole of irony," Sládek also begs an interrogation into what American culture is based on, and what it takes to pop its bubble.