Magical Universe

"Magical Universe" is a tender portrait of the artist as a weirdly gifted, wildly prolific and strange man.

While Mr. Workman evidently respects Mr. Carbee's talent, he also frames his movie as a trite narrative about a kind of lovably odd acquaintance who comes out of his shell, without many incisive ideas about shaping or broadening the material.

To varying degrees of success, it attempts to prominently display Al Carbee's creations, yet keeps undermining his art in favor of investigating his skewed relationship to everyday realities.

Carbee is such a benign, downright lovable presence, and so obviously tickled by the attention, that the film doesn't seem at all exploitative.