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Art School Confidential

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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!

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.

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.

"Art School Confidential" is directed by Terry Zwigoff, director of "Bad Santa" and is a massively underrated comedy. The movie stars Max Minghella (son of "Cold Mountain" writer/director Anthony Minghella),
Sophia Myles (who's really hot), John Malkovich (one of the best actors alive), Jim Broadbent ("Gangs of New York"), Ethan Suplee ("My Name is Earl"), Nick Swardson ("Grandma's Boy"), Joel David Moore (also "Grandma's Boy"), Steve Buscemi ("Fargo"), and Anjelica Huston ("Daddy Day Care"). Minghella plays Jerome Platz, an aspiring artist who begins attending Strathmore Academy. He arrives at a strange time, since a serial killer is terrorizing the grounds (which has, I admit, become cliche). In one class, Professor Sandiford (Malkovich, terrific as always) informs the students that only 1 out of 100 of them will ever make a living as an artist. Jerome is looking to be that one; In fact, he's aiming really high. He wants to be the greatest artist of the 21st century. Then Jerome meets an art model named Audrey (Myles) and spends the rest of the movie trying to win her over. Problem is, a guy named Jonah (Matt Keeslar) seems to be in the running for her affections as well...Although, Jonah isn't quite who he seems to be. This story isn't typical boy-meets-girl kind of material though. Jerome is kind of weird and is very obsessive of Audrey, so when she doesn't "fall into his arms" it's not really hard to see why. Swardson and Suplee co-star as Jerome's roommates. One of whom is making a movie about the strangler, the other whom may or not be gay. Huston plays an Art Teacher, Broadbent plays an alcoholic artist, and Buscemi plays the owner of a cafe where most artists get their start showing their work. The biggest problem I had with the film was the ending. It seemed a little forced and overly symbolic. Like the screenwriter though "OK, yeah, that's great. They kiss through the glass, everyone cheers. Cut to black." I know a lot of people on Amazon don't seem to like this movie, but it's actually a pretty funny and smartly written comedy. Whether my poorly written synopsis intrigues you or not, see this movie.

GRADE: A-

Sly, acerbic and totally irreverent Art School Confidential has fun skewering the world of art colleges, offering up a delectable mix of characters. The film exudes a peppy confidence with director Terry Zwigoff's and Daniel Clowes - who wrote the script - obviously having a lot of fun satirizing this institution of higher learning.

The film however, especially during the last half, tends to lose its way a bit with multiple subplots, involving a campus murderer and it becomes a mishmash that isn't particularly hard to follow, but doesn't really pack the caustic punch of the first act.

The shy, sensitive and totally virginal Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) is totally stoked to have a place at the Strathmore Art Academy. A Picasso aspirant from the New Jersey suburbs, Jerome enthusiastically enrolls in the school only to have his obvious talent - he's the only one in the class producing anything recognizable as art - not just disregarded, but mocked.

Jerome's cynical and preoccupied Professor Sandiford (John Malkovich) who supervises him in the life-drawing class is more concerned with promoting the work of class hunk and obvious art dunce Jonah (Matt Keeslar), who also impresses the students and faculty with his flashy but rather unsophisticated paintings.

But Jerome also has a romantic cross to bear. He has a desperate crush on life model Audrey (Sophia Myles), yet he feels as though he just doesn't meet her standards, especially when she starts courting Jonah. As you might expect, Jerome ends up completely cynical about romance, relationships and the art scene, and his place in it.

Encouragement comes in the form of his wise mentors in Professor Sandiford and the washed-up, alcoholic and profanity spewing Strathmore graduate Jimmy (Jim Broadbent). Jerome eventually pays the ultimate price for artistic notoriety and at first he fails miserably to get noticed despite his being more talented than anyone in the class, including Professor Sandiford.

It is only when Jerome begins cheating and stealing others' work that he starts getting the attention that invariably leads to success. This fame, however, comes at a price and he ends up becoming the prime suspect in a series of series of murders taking place around the campus.

Max Minghella is very good in the role of Jerome and he instills his character with just the right amount of boyish innocence and "straightness" that indeed makes him look like a fish out of water amongst all the bohemians. But at times he's so innocuous and demure that he tends to get lost amidst all the ribald, particularly when he's up against the inherently funny Ethan Suplee as Jerome's blowhard roommate.

The true scene-stealers, however, are Mr. Broadbent and Mr. Malkovich, who give the funniest and most sardonic performances in the film. Malkovich's droll and deadpan interpretation of the role of art teacher underscores the movie's absurdity. Nobody is better at playing haughtiness and self-importance - Sandiford is far more concerned with propping up his own failing career that worrying about his students.

Jim Broadbent also has some marvelously cockamamie moments as he swigs down booze and yells lewd epithets to Jerome. This art school seems to be existing on borrowed time - the students are zany and the teachers look tired and lack commitment, and distain pretension; it's world in which catastrophes are commonplace, and true talent is not properly appraised, and where the problem is never "selling out," but learning how to "buy in." Making it is all that matters. Mike Leonard October 06.

After having read several reviews of this film, I'm a little shocked at the number of reviewers, both pro and amateur, that somehow just didn't quite get it. Part of the problem seems to be the level of comedy in the first parts of the film. It's absolutely laugh-out-loud funny, especially for anyone who's ever actually attended art school. Given that the film is by Zwigoff/Clowes, I'm guessing a lot of viewers expected comedy all the way. These two don't stop at being comedians, however, and, just as in their first collaboration, Ghost World, things can get a little grim as they lampoon the foibles of modern living. As the film moves past poking fun at the levels of pretension generated by those involved with the art world, it takes a deeper look at a life destroyed by just such pretension, and how far one is willing to go to attain fame and one's obscure object of desire.
Ultimately, we see the lead character, Jerome, in his true light, a true artist, who relates much more to his ideas than to the world around him.
Zwigoff and Clowes, in true artist fashion themselves, may show the audience a bit more than they're really willing to see, cutting deeply into the underlying motivations of people. It's definitely an auteur film that defies the strict categorizations of one specific genre. Even if you don't get or agree with the more psychological aspects of the film, it's worth it just for its biting wit.
Best performance in the film goes to Jim Broadbent as the bitter loser who feels tossed aside by the world of artistic success, only to come up with his own, hideously drastic response as an artist.

Though I don't want to go into great detail on the plotlines, as it's all been said very well already, I do want to say that I most agree with 'Thornhill's' review in that this is a movie, that while having some very funny 'bits' throughout (particularly to those familiar with certain parts of the art world) never really seems to ever 'gel' together into a truly working film. Perhaps it's because unlike Ghostworld, which had a variety of characters, which though wacky, we could grow to relate to and love in several ways as they went about their lives.. most of the people that inhabit the world of ASC are merely shallow 'cardboard cutouts' that never develop. We never come to care about any of them - including the brooding, attention-seeking wanna-be artist protagonist. It's a shame really, as the initial idea seems like a really great one, and the parts from Ghostworld that hinted at much of the ridiculousness of 'art schools/wacky teachers' were among my favorites.. But despite the great (& here very poorly used) cast - It just doesn't ever come together. Even though Zwigoff and Clowes may have been attempting to make a point with the whole (ridiculous) 'Strathemore Strangler' idea, the end result is that it simply comes off as their not TRUSTING or having developed their best ideas enough. Had that dropped all that 'B-movie' crap, and more fully developed the characters and ideas involving the school & it's various students/teachers itself... they may have made a great little movie. Instead of yet another 'bad/fair movie with a few good bits here & there'.

A few little points of interest to me while watching this: -Despite what previous reviewers have mentioned about Jerome's supposed 'high-goals' or talents, ..To me Jerome isn't much interested in art, art-making, or the business of art.. as he is on recieving immediate approval & attention from everyone around him (that's his problem really - not to mention alot of people in real life ;O) When he visits the home of his teacher, sees the ridiculous triangles hanging on the walls, and overhears firsthand how BADLY the teacher is at his very own business - anyone with any sense would have walked out realizing the guy was a complete hack. But of course Jerome doesn't seem to realize this.(If he did - we wouldn't have any movie) But instead asks the teacher for his advice... and later when he actually tries following it, gets scorned by this same milkdud for having done so. At least Enid (Ghostworld) knew when the people around her were 'full of it'.
- Picasso was very likely chosen as Jerome's hero for audience name recognition (plus it doesn't hurt that he had numerous well-known affairs - Which I may add, isn't too unlike many men.. only that Picasso's were more 'publicized' being who he was..) But strangely Jerome seems to have never SEEN nor been influenced by anything of Picasso's, as what he does bears neither an inkling resemblance to either Picasso's more academic periods or any of the various forms of cubism. More akin (thanks to Clowes talents likely) to comic-book illustration. I'm not knocking the style at all, as I've done it myself for many years, but it's NOT really what you'd expect a student in an actual life-drawing class to be doing. Had the better of my own two college drawing teachers been there, she would have swatted him and told him to work on his 'lights, darks, & forms' and 'stop drawing all those damn charicatures'. ;)
- Strangely, the scene where Sophia Myles gets up to get a cigarette (alas, her 'glorious buns' have more personality than the rest of her in this movie) You'll notice a girl sitting next to Jerome that seems to have the very same style & abilities as Jerome.. as her pic is almost the very same(though emphasizing the head more) but this is never brought up of course.
- Stranger still, in the same scene.. all the students seem to think that they're in a 'Portrait class' & not a lifedrawing one - as they have all pretty much ignored Sophia's lovely form, and have depicted her soley from the waist or chest up. Not a big deal at all, but I found it a tad amusing.
- Though it was probably overshadowed by the reactions of the parents (also funny) ..I did love the bit where the grandmotherly-type told Jerome about some silly little girl that paints little animals on shoes and supposedly sells them... and that 'maybe he should try something like that too!' (LOL) Even now that I sell my own art & make a decent living at it(Hmm, does that make me one of the 'elite special '1 in 100'?.. Do I get a cookie for it? ;O) I'll still occasionally hear something just like that (it's USUALLY a late-middle to elderly woman that says it too) To actually see this very same thing in a movie was hilarious. Like I said - The movie isn't great... but it does has some funny 'bits' to those that have been through it. ;)
The movie does do one thing fairly well though... showing that a good majority of what goes on in so-called 'art schools' is really rather ridiculous & pointless. And that the words spoken by the 'a-h@le artist that made it' though possibly meant as a bit of a snide joke.. are actually the most profound in the movie.
If one were to go to his/her local library, rent a bunch of videos and read-up on a good number of books (including a few on art business while you're at it) ..you would have (assuming you have the natural skills to back it up) a FAR GREATER knowledge and technical expertise than anything the majority of these schools could give you. And better yet - you'd have acquired it for FREE too!

I was really surprised by ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL. I hadn't heard about the film, but positive reviews drew me to it. Wow, was I glad they did. This is unconventional storytelling at its finest.

If you're tired of wading through the shelves and shelves of unsatisfying movies that litter our video store shelves, try ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL. It has a little bit of everything for everybody.

Directed by Terry Zwigoff, who gave us movies like BAD SANTA & GHOSTWORLD. The intent of ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL is satire. To make fun of ART SCHOOL. Yet, in a weird way, Zwigoff chose not only to let Art School satirize itself, he let real human emotions and frustrations play out, and it WORKS brilliantly.

Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) is striving to be the greatest artist of all time, and what artist isn't. So, when his works are overlooked in class, his frustration begins to boil. What's worse than people criticizing your work? When they ignore it completely. What makes great art? What makes artists memorable or unforgettable?

What makes ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL such an enjoyable viewing experience over all the other junk, is the depth of story and the richness of characters. There is so much going on and it all comes together beautifully. An independent film, a beautiful model named Audrey (Sophia Myles) who becomes Jerome's obsession, an art Professor named Sandiford (John Malkovich) that is struggling himself to become something more than forgettable, a washed up former artist and alcoholic bum named Jimmy, a serial strangler on campus, a battle for supremacy in the classroom and a search for what makes something art and what makes something trash.

Jim Broadbent, Ethan Suplee, Joel Moore, Matt Keeslar, John Malkovich, Marshall Bell & Steve Buscemi all round out the cast that come together in different and hilarious ways that will have you glued and enjoying one of the most satisfying movie experiences you'll find these days. Not to mention, will give you twists and turns that keep you interested till the credits roll.

I've just watched Art School Confidential, a 2006 film from Terry Zwigoff, maker of Crumb (1994) and Ghost World (2001), two of my favourite films. It gets wildly divergent responses from reviewers, usually a sign the film maker has hit his mark.

Watch Crumb if you want to know what's wrong with America, dissected by an extraordinarily intelligent, very articulate and devastatingly vitriolic analyst who has worked through his own childhood abuse, art celebrity and exploitation and dysfunctional family life to achieve some kind of clarity. Robert Crumb is not just a talented artist and cartoonist but a master of black humour, whose comments are so accurate they make you feel uncomfortable even while you laugh.

In Ghost World two best friends are in league against the mediocrity that surrounds them, the parents, the nerds, the pretentious advocates of bad taste. Then one of the friends succumbs (grows up). The film has a lot of heart and is much more than satire, but the tasteless, the sellout and the lies we tell ourselves are held up to ridicule until right at the end of the movie when Enid has an epiphany. She learns that if we believe enough, then our bus will arrive.

Art School Confidential, made, like Ghost World, with Daniel Clowes (whose comics formed the basis for both films) attempts a more complex structure than the earlier films and is not entirely successful. Here the structural idea is to parody the teenage exposé film genre, as you can tell from the title, with all the stereotype characters and acts of violence, the rivalries and central love affair common to the genre. It's an easy target: even the best of the type, Rebel Without a Cause, now looks a bit dated.

At the same time the pretensions of the art world are skewered (without doubt other professions, like financial analysis for example, have their pretensions. The film doesn't claim there is something unusual about art in this respect. And of course this is not a real art school). John Malkovich is devastatingly good as a teacher whose self obsession makes him less than useless as an instructor. Steve Buscemi has a few good minutes as Broadway Bob, an egotistical gallery owner. The students' critique of each other's work is a marvel of obfuscation. Everybody at this school works really hard on the trappings of art, without creating any art at all. The film really excels here, though the satire is a bit distant. The film makers are not as threatened by the art bureaucracy as Enid and Rebecca were of adulthood in Ghost World. And they can hardly lampoon artists ambitious of financial success while making a movie themselves, a business venture designed to make money.

But there's more yet to the film. The central character, Jerome, wants to be as famous and admired as Picasso. He's shown as a good artist, but his emotional need is the motivation for what he does. He's at art school just as much to find the girl on the school catalog as to outpaint Picasso. While he dedicates himself to his painting he loses his girl and is sneered at by his fellow students. Once he joins the rat race and strives to impress, he gains ground, and when he exploits his notoriety as a suspected serial killer he not only starts to sell paintings, but his girl falls in love with him. He ends up with it all, but is separated from both girl and gallery by a visitors' glass wall in the prison where he awaits trial. So he doesn't get it all, merely the appearance of all. You'd be doing the film an injustice by seeing this as realism, though some surprisingly have done so.

This is a serious attempt though to look at artists' motivations and the many ways you can sell out for success, with all the rewards and punishments this implies. And I wonder if the love affair, with beautiful music from a Beethoven concerto, was not self parody and a sellout as well. The acting was good enough to get me involved but I do have second thoughts. I did feel the love affair and the artistic ambitions illuminated one another.

All told the film tries to do too much and feels as if some of its many producers might have tinkered with the script or tried to interfere with its development. There's a too many cooks air about the film. Perhaps the film makers were just ambitious. My verdict would be that the parts are more than the whole, but that its worth seeing for those parts, especially the ridicule of the art mystique, where the blind very confidently lead the blind. Thank god there are people trying to achieve something as complex as this in film.

"Art School Confidential" could have been so much better than it was. The first half of the film showed a lot of promise, but was almost failed by a second half that found itself weighed-down by a moroseness so deep and perplexing that it seemed like a completely different film. It's not often a good idea to judge a movie based upon what you *wanted* it to be, but here I just couldn't help myself. Perhaps that's my error, and not the film's?

The movie centers around Jerome, played by Max Minghella, who is a freshman at Strathmore art school. Jerome's favorite artist, as he confidently tells anyone who will ask or listen, is Picasso. He wants to be the greatest artist of the 21st century, if for no other reason than he thinks it will allow him to bed lots of women, much like his idol. But Jerome is something of a cipher, as witness when a friend of his tries to hook him up with hot girl after hot girl, and Jerome seems uninterested, as though he's waiting for that one, true love of his life. He also seems to truly believe in his art, and holds definite opinions about the work of others in his freshman class. What Jerome's motives and inner-thoughts precisely are remain somewhat of a mystery, even after the film has ended.

On-hand to round out the cast of "Art School Confidential" are John Malkovich as Professor Sandiford, one of Jerome's teachers, Jim Broadbent as Jimmy, a Strathmore graduate whose life has collapsed inward into a dank and lonely apartment, and Sophia Myles, who plays Audrey, the object of Jerome's affection. There is also a strangler on the loose around Strathmore, one who has racked-up his fifth victim as the film proceeds along its path. As Jerome becomes more and more frustrated about what others think of his art, and worries that Audrey prefers another artist over him, he starts to lose sight of reasoned and moral ground. Minghella handles this transition quite well, although the filmmakers do not.

The problems I have with "Art School Confidential" revolved mostly around the screenplay and the direction. While I loved director Terry Zwigoff's 2000 film "Ghost World," he has since appeared to delve into an increasingly cynical tone, what with "Bad Santa" and now this. The world of art college is savaged in this film, and quite unmercilessly. If someone isn't a gay predator, then they're a strangler. If they're not a documentary maker without a clue, then they're an art-displaying restaurant owner who carries himself above most others. And I suspect that the transition from the film's hilarious first half into its decidedly darker second could have been handled much better by someone as accomplished as Zwigoff. Why he faltered here is anyone's guess.

I almost wanted to give "Art School Confidential" just 2 stars, but something about it made me give it a passing grade. The first part really *is* well-done, and Max Minghella is a great actor, as well as being incredibly gorgeous to look at. The acting by all involved is great, and the setting and many of the incidents and dialogue ring true. It may not be a film you'd want to pay full-price at the theater for, but it would definitely make for an interesting rental. It is a refreshingly unique and quirky movie, and for that, despite its flaws, I'd have to recommend seeing it some time.