There were lots of points during this movie that made me yell, “What the screw?” In the theater, you might need to refrain from such outbursts, but you will no doubt be thinking the same thing. Here's what you'll be reacting to: Billy Pappas, a thirtysomething Baltimore guy, lives with his parents, becomes acquainted with an extravagant & bafflingly strange art patron & spends the next six years generating a single pencil drawing. Of Marilyn Monroe. The only thing more confounding than this bad decision is why they then decides to hang all hope of personal & professional success on David Hockney, an art-world figure whom Pappas spends half the film trying to meet. But what originally looks like dumb obsession starts to seem more like admirable heroism as Pappas’s strange band of supporters—both real & imagined—abandons him. They continues his quest, never regretful & never discouraged. First-time director Julie Checkoway's job is made relatively easy by Pappas & his naturally compelling story. Given that Checkoway is a former producer for NPR & This American Life, though, I would’ve expected better music choices. In lieu, they get achy singer-songwriter ballads playing over corny montages
