Art School Confidential Review
Posted by Matthew Craggs on 05.10.2006
Class is in session
Max Minghella- Jerome
Sophia Myles - Audrey
Matt Keeslar - Jonah
John Malkovich - Professor Sandiford
Jim Broadbent – Jimmy
Ethan Suplee - Vince
Anjelica Huston - Sophie
Joel Moore - Bardo
Scoot McNairy - Army Jacket
United Artists and Sony Pictures Classics presents a film directed by Terry Zwigoff. Written by Daniel Clowes. Rated R for language including sexual references, nudity and a scene of violence. Runtime 102 minutes.
A quick gander at director Terry Zwigoff's filmography will let you know what you're getting yourself into with Art School Confidential. Crumb was about quintessential outsider Robert Crumb. Ghost World told a story of the cold, hard realities of the real world hitting two teenage cynics like a ton of bricks. Bad Santa planted a lousy drunk and scheming small man into the middle of a world of station wagon and soccer practice. We have a good idea going into his latest, written by Ghost World collaborator and comic creator Daniel Clowes, that the film will be cynical, dark, funny, and feature egomaniacal characters that are smarter than the group they secretly want to join.
For the most part this assumption is true. Art School Confidential feels like a Clowes/Zwigoff picture, which isn't a bad thing. What is bad (or at least less than good) is that the picture never quite manages to find its footing. Allow me, good reader, to explain.
Relative newcomer Max Minghella is Jerome. He is an aspiring young artist beginning his freshman year at art school. Although he is the smartest member of his class he is also a naïve young chap and has a lot to learn about the art game. Not to mention he's quite a bit on the geeky side and lacks experience with the young lasses.
Among the clichés is the big man on art school campus, Jonah (Matt Keeslar). The class gets behind his simple drawings while Jermone wonders just what they see in him. Audrey (Sophia Myles, also known as Isolde in Tristan and Isolde) is the love interest/nude model for one of Jerome's classes. Vince (Ethan Suplee, who is always funny) is the roommate film student in the middle of making a documentary. Jimmy (Jim Broadbent) has been through the art game and is a somber reminder of what happens to aspiring youth when they aren't the one-in-a-million who can make a living creating art. The teachers, the likes of which include Anjelica Houston as the sane one and John Malkovich who is more the opposite, are teaching because those who can't, teach.
And that's your cast of characters.
The film takes place over the course of preparing a final project that will be judged. Jerome sees this as a chance to win Audrey's heart for good – if Jonah doesn't stand in his way. See, Jonah is the jock to Jerome's math club, and beautiful young women prefer the jock.
Eventually, the plot breaks off into a murder mystery. The subject of Vince's documentary is a serial killer that stalks the campus. He has stayed relatively dormant recently, but a new class is in session and the crimes understandably shake the campus. As the film goes on it falls more and more into murder mystery territory.
That is the problem with Art School Confidential: While I have nothing against a raw look at the delusions of hip young artists, and I have nothing against hip young murder mysteries, but Art School Confidential doesn't do either well enough to grab me and pull me in. There are enough funny jokes and the murder mystery is serviceable, but it's damned near impossible to escape the feeling of "So what?" Yes, art school is an easy target. The students are caught up in themselves and the teachers are hacks. Zwigoff and Clowes don't bring it home, so to speak, with some grand uniting statement about mankind like was done in their previous work. Instead we're left thinking to ourselves that yes, these types are laughable… but what's the point?
The 411: Art School Confidential is a very watchable picture. There are plenty of laughs to go around; however, it lacks in its laziness. Zwigoff and Clowes find happiness in merely poking some fun at an easy mark instead of deconstructing the target.
