"Beautiful Losers" is a documentary about the artists who coalesced around New York's Alleged Gallery in the 1990s.

The movie shares its name with a big presentation that was made of their work back in the not-so-distant day (and was borrowed, in both cases, from a novel by Leonard Cohen). It seems like an ironic title for the film now, though, since most of these people have gone on to great success in both the art world and the realm of commercial design.

But the claim is made that the likes of Mike Mills, Ed Templeton, "Obey Andre the Giant" perpetrator Shepard Fairey and Pepsi One pitchman Geoff McFetridge inspired the DIY movement that is so popular with young creative types these days.

Outside of the art establishment in their own time, this loose-knit but supportive bunch came from graffiti tagging and skateboarding backgrounds, and while the individual artists exhibit their own unique styles, they seem overwhelmingly more influenced by 2-D comic strip graphics than traditional higher aesthetics.

But their work is fun and generally good, so this is a pleasant enough visual romp with surprisingly few down notes. The latter are mainly provided by Harmony Korine, the "Kids" screenwriter and "Gummo" director, who hung around with the Alleged group and mostly tells pointless, depressing stories here. A medical tragedy also struck one of the most likable painters. And co-director (with Joshua Leonard) Aaron Rose recounts the financial difficulty of keeping his gallery running.

Other than that, it's all about the artists themselves discussing their ideas, their shared sense of creative freedom and how surprisingly little angst they feel about selling out to corporate culture (Nike's sponsoring workshops with the artists for underprivileged kids). The discourse ranges from revealing to vapid, but they all seem to be remarkably pleasant and well-adjusted. Maybe what makes them losers in their world is their failure to suffer at the level of a Van Gogh or a Pollock.

© Copyright 2008, New York Times Syndicate