The Radiant Child was a documentary taken from footage from a friend of the late artist Jean Michel Basquiat who was less tragic figure as he was misunderstood as a human being who was just making sense of the world around him first as a street artist who had a command of his audience as he resonated with his generation and their disdain with the establishment as Dadaists before him. His cultural experiences from Haitian and Puerto Rican origins who high point was to make his prominent father proud as Gerard Basquiat, with some trepidation, gives Jean Michel money with the understanding that he will try his best to succeed and not unlike Miles Davis was tied to a dominant professional father. The latter of which asked to leave Julliard after being disillusioned with the "Eurocentric" slant which was a far cry from the Bebop movement he wanted to join which Jean Michel admired(though he favored Dizzy Gillespie).
The film did leave so many unanswered questions about the influence of the emerging hip hop uptown and club scene which his irreverent alter ego SAMO had such an impact upon. Basquait favored NYC to LA which was little surprise or consequence though the film made it a point to speak about effect the patrons of LA has upon Jean Michel's lapse into apathy and affluence. The struggle to overcome forces like Hilton Kramer who dismissed Basquiat's talent as so miniscule that his importance was practically nil and a heroin addiction that was a crutch nurtured by pressures to produce for galleries and clients led to his declining health subsequent to the passing of his mentor and hero in Andy Warhol and perhaps a broken heart from the lack of access to the high art circles he so desperately wanted to be a part of in life.
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