Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006)

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus is special because it treats artistic awakening like a dream you can walk through—lush, uneasy, and strangely seductive—rather than a tidy biopic checklist. Set in a velvety 1950s New York, it surrounds you with atmospheric, hallucinatory imagery that feels both glamorous and slightly haunted, as if the city itself is whispering secrets about identity and desire. Nicole Kidman brings a quiet, searching intensity to Diane’s restlessness, while Robert Downey Jr. is magnetic in a role that’s equal parts enigmatic and disarming, anchoring the film’s more visionary flourishes with real human pull. It won’t be for viewers who want strict historical accuracy or straightforward storytelling, but if you’re in the mood for an intriguing, visually daring mood piece about becoming yourself, it’s a fascinating watch.

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus wants to be a dreamy, sensual origin story about an artist breaking out of a gilded cage, using 1950s New York as a moody backdrop. The problem is it often feels like it’s circling big ideas with soft focus rather than digging into what made Arbus and her work truly unsettling and singular, leaning on clumsy symbolism and underwritten relationships instead. If you’re hoping for a sharp, revealing biopic or anything that seriously engages with her photography, this may come off as too safe, too polite, and oddly miscast for its subject. Still, if you can treat it as a fictional fable loosely inspired by Arbus, there’s some atmospheric production design and a committed, melancholy tone that might keep you along for the ride.