DAY IS DONE

MIKE KELLEY

By DAVID DAY

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MICROCINEMA

7.28.09

Mike Kelley is to Sonic Youth as Matthew Barney is to Björk. An artist admired and inspired by underground rock, Kelley has grown into an admirable institution all his own.

Day is Done is part Election, part absurdist comedy and entirely bizarre. Originally a 50-channel video-sculpture, Kelley reworked the installation into a 169-minute epic involving black magick, a yodeling Beyoncé and Dracula as Bacharach (or Bacharachula, if you will). Through a series of intertwined tales, Kelley takes over a high school and turns his video camera onto a fucked and fictional list of characters, all plodding toward a candle-lighting ceremony with dark, Satanic implications. The ritual includes white supremacists rapping, instant Christian weight loss and a jaw-dropping Mary and Joseph casting call.

We learn "Sinep" is "penis" spelled backwards, worship of Gene Simmons' tongue can lead to fist fighting a born-again hick and that barbers can be remarkably rude to underage customers. Other things to look for: Garth Brooks and a conspicuously placed boob, the introspective patriotic cactus zombie intermission and the tribal hornet-man sex ritual.

The two-plus hours move by faster than you expect, though each of the 88 segments seems to last uncomfortably long. Day is Done is a peculiar film by any measure.