Stream It Or Skip It: ‘LA Originals’ on Netflix, a Documentary Profiling Two Artists Who Greatly Influenced Pop Culture in the ‘90s

Netflix documentary LA Originals didn’t get the splash debut it wanted at the canceled SXSW Film Festival, so now it debuts on the streaming service without much fanfare. And that’s too bad, considering how it details the careers of Los Angeles artists Mark “Mister Cartoon” Machado and Estevan Oriol, whose Latinx roots inspired a cross-cultural phenomenon.

LA ORIGINALS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Cartoon and Estevan were already damn good artists when they met in 1992, but together, they were destined for greater things. Cartoon started out as a graffiti artist and transitioned to being the tattoo artist du jour of hip-hop superstars (Eminem, 50 Cent, misc. Wu Tang members) and those who wanted to be as cool as them (hello, Ryan Phillippe). Estevan is a former road manager for House of Pain and Cypress Hill who became the two acts’ de facto staff photographer, and spun the exposure into a career of magazine photo shoots and music-video director gigs.

So what? Well, here’s the what: If you’ve seen jailhouse/graffiti-inspired art on T-shirts and tattoos, that was likely inspired by Cartoon. Same for Estevan and the lowrider-street party fisheye-lens music videos and album covers that were ubiquitous in the 1990s and 2000s. The duo set up shop smack on Skid Row in L.A., working as artists-in-residence in the Soul Assassins space, where musicians (mostly Cypress Hill and their affiliates) and other creatives worked and hung out with a bunch of tricked-out vintage automobiles and the occasional homeless local.

For the documentary, Estevan tracks down anyone who’s anyone to comment on his and Cartoon’s work: A few loose Fast and Furious cast members, Shepard Fairey, that one guy from Sons of Anarchy, lots of Eminem, Kobe Bryant (!), Danny Trejo, Brian Grazer (!!), Snoop Dogg, Travis Barker, Pepper the self-proclaimed “Mayor of Skid Row,” and many others. All participants assure the film is jammed with love and hyperbole, both probably well-deserved?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Remember Hype!, the 1996 doc about the grunge explosion? It chronicles a parallel movement to the one we see in LA Originals.

Performance Worth Watching: It’s kind of novel to see Eminem be candid, considering the majority of the world surely sees him as an overly serious, self-important stiff.

Memorable Dialogue: “These dudes are like cholo Da Vincis.” — comic George Lopez probably gets his name in all the promotional materials with this assessment

Sex and Skin: A few fleeting images of topless women at concerts and in still photos.

Our Take: LA Originals indulges in significant self-aggrandizement thanks to the celeb parade and a lack of any objective commentary whatsoever. It reaches its peak an hour in, when Cartoon shows off the Nike shoes he designed, and gives inspiring talks to school kids about chasing their dreams. This might be tougher to swallow if these guys didn’t have such humble origins in L.A.’s with violence-, addiction- and poverty-ridden neighborhoods. (Notably, Estevan briefly mentions his substance abuse issues.) They took what they knew and watched it get huge.

The film’s third act tones down the guest stars and digs a little deeper. In-between high-profile appointments, S.A. Studios’ proximity to the city’s troubled street life inspired Estevan to capture the homelessness epidemic on film, and Cartoon to acknowledge gang deaths in his tattoo art. Estevan delivers only glancing blows to the ideas of cultural appropriation, gentrification and corporate theft, possibly so nobody comes off sounding whiny. (His ridiculously famous image of a woman with long, sharp fingernails making the “LA” sign with her digits ended up on H&M clothing, but the film doesn’t mention his failed attempt to sue.)

Our Call: STREAM IT. A stronger profile of Estevan and Cartoon might have an outside director. But as is, for a general Netflix audience, LA Originals serves as an introduction to the artists who influenced a large swath of popular culture for a decade or two.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream LA Originals on Netflix