Product Details

• Actors: Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Matt Keeslar
• Directors: Terry Zwigoff
• Writers: Daniel Clowes
• Producers: John Malkovich, Barbara A. Hall, Daniel Clowes, Lianne Halfon, Russell Smith
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: October 10, 2006
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000H6SXSI
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,102 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Art School Confidential" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Art Film Movie About An Artist At Art School ...Whoa!, May 22, 2006

By 

B. Merritt "filmreviewstew.com" (WWW.FILMREVIEWSTEW.COM, Pacific Grove, California United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Yesterday I went to my local art theater to watch an art film about a future artist attending art school. Whew! I'm glad I got that out!

But lets chat about this art film, shall we? Here we go...

It's got a lot going for it. First and foremost is an impressive script. Obviously the screenwriter, director, producer (or all three) attended art school at some point. And making fun of the people and faculty at such a place is where the comedy in Art School Confidential takes wing. When Jerome (Max Minghella), the main character, begins attending his freshman year at Strathmore Art School, he's quickly introduced to the cliche-riddled cast (the cliche is purposeful and pulled off just as well as the movie GALAXY QUEST). He meets the burned-out art teacher Professor Sandiford (John Malkovich), the beautiful model that every male wants named Audrey (Sophia Myles), the angry lesbian, the teacher's pet/kiss-a$$, the drug addled film student, and a splash of others. There's also a strangler on the loose in the neighborhood which will play a vital role in how Jerome's artistic dreams play out.

The ridiculousness of art school is what really makes this movie work. Jerome is obviously very talented, but other artists whiz by him because art is what the artists say art is. It might be a picture of a car, or a man attaching jumper cables to his nipples and letting current run through him, or a mound of plastic chairs.

Jerome wants to be the next Picasso. He studies hard, tries to get noticed, but nothing seems to work. He's also a virgin and wants desperately to get laid but with the wacked out student body at Strathmore, he's got his work cut out for him.

As Jerome works and works, trying to become a successful artist, we get to watch him fall into despair; he starts smoking, drinking, and visits a washed up Strathmore graduate named Jimmy (Jim Broadbent) who gives him some dark and grotesquely sage advice: "Are you good at `getting on your knees?'" (I've cleaned that up a bit, but you get the idea.)

It becomes apparent to Jerome (and the movie watcher) that he has no chance of becoming a recognized artist ...unless something drastic happens. Which, of course, it does (Cliche? Oh yes!)
Once this "something drastic" happens, Jerome learns the true nature of being an artist. It's an unfortunate and incredibly funny set of circumstances that finally thrusts Jerome into the limelight.

The level of casting in this indie film is surprisingly large and notable. In addition to John Malkovich (BEING JOHN MALKOVICH) we see Anjelica Huston (THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS), Jim Broadbent (MOULIN ROUGE!), Matt Keeslar (DUNE miniseries), Ethan Suplee (COLD MOUNTAIN), Steve Buscemi (THE BIG LEBOWSKI) and several others.

This impressive cast pulled off the overly-pretentious attitudes that flood many art schools. They were witty yet cynical which made laughing out loud a requirement during the viewing of this amazing little flick.

God I love these little independents when they're done right!

28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Snarky Little Film with Contempt for Pretension, May 13, 2006

By 

Mark R., Whittington "author of Children of A... (Houston, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
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Jerome, the ackward, teenaged charecter, spends the first few minutes of the film getting the crap beaten out of him by various bullies. He also can't get laid because, as he puts it, he has high standards. But he has a bigger problem. He wants to be an artist, indeed the greatest artist of the 21st Century. A fine ambition to be sure, but Jerome seems to be more in love with the idea of being an artist than creating art. And that's kind of a paradox, because he's the only person depicted in the film who creates pieces that are worth looking at. His style is somewhat akin to the doomed Jack Dawson from that slightly bigger film, Titanic, rather than that of his idol, Picasso.

Jerome goes to a pretigious, northe eastern art school in hopes of picking up a few grains of wisdom that will help him to fullfill his ambition. The problem is that most of his fellow students and many of his teachers are either pretenders or insane or both. Then he runs into the age old problem of it's not what you know but who you know. Through in a beautiful artists model (the only female worth getting intiment with), a serial killer, and a fiendish plan to become the greatest artist of the 21st Century (or at least the current fashion of this season), and you got a delightfully, snarky little movie that makes the viewer laugh at everything and everyone in it with a mixture of contempt and astonishment.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I was expecting, January 13, 2007

By 

Bryan Foster (Petoskey, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Art School Confidential (DVD)

Did anyone else see the previews for this and think it was a straight up mindless comedy? What the heck did I watch?

Anyway, we you get into it and realize that it is much more of a dark comedy, you can entirely enjoy this movie. The social comentary on the whole "What is art?" question and the mocking of the art world in general is great. The cast is above average and the writing is actually pretty good. The series of events at toward the end were not as funny as they could've been, but still o.k.

It just wasn't what I was expecting.