“Each of the films has a different take on temptation – temptation of the heart, for a better life or for a second chance,” said James Bewley, the director for public programs at Hammer Museum. “The content is dark – you’re dealing with graphic violence, cannibalism and prostitutes, but they’re all really beautiful films.”
"James Bewley is one of the artists who take their own lives as a starting point. His gouaches depict a character in a bat suit whose bumbling adventures are based loosely on his life. He places his antihero in ridiculous situations, like trying to chat up women, smoking a cigar or riding a motorcycle to church."
"When it comes to Flash-animated comedy, does the scenario of a depressed Swedish playwright and a happy lil’ blob of lighter-than-air gas come to mind? If so, then have we got the cartoon for you: Strindberg and Helium."
"So one more thing: It's been sometimes difficult in recent months to feel good about America. One needn't recite the litany of pride, arrogance, stupidity and cruelty. But while wallowing in our well-justified gloom, its salutary to come across something as sunny and sweet as 'Strindberg and Helium."
"Humiliating ones, too. Just ask James Bewley, a goateed, smirking Lobster who carries around a few extra pounds. While he played a dancing student who goes to great lengths to please his instructor, Bewley was nude onstage for an entire six-performance run seen by thousands."
"Fellow Lobster James Bewley admits, 'Most of my sketches are no longer than half a page.' He tops that admission by declaring, 'Most ideas happen for me in the bathroom. I can't write unless I'm improv-ing in front of the mirror. Then I try to recapture the best parts of what I toss off there."
"(For the record, the bits that made me laugh the hardest were Donkey Kong, the visitor at the side of the door, the restaurant, and two comic strip-teases, including one by a man in a bear costume)."
