Release Date: April 28, 2006 (NY, LA)
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Director: Terry Zwigoff
Screenwriter: Daniel Clowes
Starring: Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Anjelica Huston

Plot Summary: In "Art School Confidential," director Terry Zwigoff returns to a theme from his films "Crumb" and "Ghost World": the isolation of sensitive people whose interests and work are under-appreciated in a vacuous contemporary world.

The film is Zwigoff's second adaptation of a comic story by Daniel Clowes, after "Ghost World," for which they shared an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2002.

"Art School Confidential" follows a talented young artist Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) as he escapes from high school to a tiny East Coast art school. Here the boyish freshman's ambition is to become the world's greatest artist, like his hero Picasso.

Unfortunately, the beauty and craft of Jerome's portraiture are not appreciated in an anything-goes art class that he finds bewildering and bogus. Neither his harsh judgments of his classmates' efforts or his later attempts to create pseudo-art of his own win him any admirers.

But Jerome does attract the attentions of his dream girl - the stunning and sophisticated Audrey (Sophia Myles) - an artist's model and daughter of a celebrated artist. Rejecting the affectations of the local art scene, Audrey is drawn to Jerome's sincerity.

When Audrey shifts her attentions to Jonah (Matt Keeslar), a hunky painter who becomes the school's latest art star, Jerome is heartbroken. Desperate, he concocts a risky plan to make a name for himself and win her back.

Filling out Jerome's world are a host of offbeat characters, including: a quirky art teacher (John Malkovich) who takes an extra-curricular interest in Jerome; a failed artist (Jim Broadbent), drowning in alcohol and self-pity; a regal art history professor (Anjelica Huston) Jerome tries to influence; a coffee shop owner-cum-art impresario (Steve Buscemi) swelling with self-importance; a worldly classmate (Joel David Moore), who introduces Jerome in the intricate mores of campus life; and Jerome's filmmaker roommate (Ethan Suplee), exploding with energy to create a cinematic masterpiece.

...

Looks interesting.

April 28: Art School Confidential

Can't wait. On my most anticipated list, as well.

We're in final approach - I'm salivating...

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/art_sch ... fidential/ This early?

Yeah, Sony delayed it when they bought MGM/UA. They wanted to concentrate on Capote so they delayed this.

The -ve reviews suggest that there is a problem in the story.

Still early days, and only 7 reviews.

Saw the trailer for Art School Confidential twice this past weekend. I was on the floor laughing, and I honestly can't wait to see this film!

Can anyone here do something that I haven't seen a million times before?

My gosh, my excitement for this movie is unbearable.

Max Minghella should act for his daddy next time.

Yeah I saw the trailer.

Wasn't amused. Looks too experimental maybe? I don't know what the word I'm looking for is but it just didn't look like it could be that great.

I might check it out. Since I moved so far from the local indie theater though it might be a DVD rental.

I'm sad.

Ya, okay - the new Terry Zwigoff film is disappointing -- there, I said it.

The good news is that I laughed my ass off at the terrific art school set-up! Seriously - it's funny. But, by God, doesn't he squander that comic foundation on a meandering sub-plot. Oh well -- a bad Zwigoff film is a magnitude better than the average Hollywood offering. And, ya know, so what? His masterpiece remains the heartwarmingly cynical black Xmas comedy Bad Santa (or was it the mindblowing perfection of Crumb?)- that's okay - I'm willing to grant him freedom to experiment with his artistic gift. I wanna see his 5th, 6th, and 7th movies - actually, I'm hereby committing to paying to see them all.

Despite the fun of seeing John Malkovich in a current movie, and what with me being a perennial Jim Broadbent fan, not to mention having fallen for Sophia Myles in her recent Isolde role (let alone her criminally under-recognized and supersexy Lady Penelope (!) ) -- this whole enterprise folds early. Maybe Max Minghella is the next Scarlett Johansson - but is that a good thing? Who knows? I stopped caring at about the one hour mark of this 102 minute show.

3 out of 5. (2 out of 5 for the fans...)

I fucking hate art students with a passion.
But I realyl want to see this movie.

I fucking hate art students with a passion.
But I realyl want to see this movie.

Imagine that! A media student hating art students. That's about as close to self-loathing as you can get, isn't it?

Not really. I didn't harbor much love for my painting classes in college either. They were ok, but nothing I remember too warmly and no one I ever really befriended. Unlike some other feels, fine arts draws a very diverse pool of participants. Some of which truly get on my nerves.

The movie itself has had a so-so opening weekend, and hasn't been that well endorsed by critics. Anyone seen it yet?

It was a simply intended as a humorous observation based on the fact that Felicity recently declared that she was a media student. Not a blanket endorsement of all art students as superior (or inferior) human beings. (Much of the humor in Art School Confidential is based on the weird diversity of art school students (and their teachers).




Do you mean, anyone other than me?

Haha! Oops, I missed that tone. I think I took the self-loathing to seriously, and scratched my head over why someone would hate themselves just because they can't stand others. Its usually the other way around.





Yes. I meant anyone else. That was a missed word. I'm getting the same general feel where I look as what you mentioned. Another interesting thing for me is that I didn't know this was based off of previously existing material. I think comics? What's the meandering sub-plot? I thought it looked funny and was pretty much just about a kid trying to meet girls (aka coming-of-age-story) against the art school backdrop. I actually really liked Bad Santa too, though I'm not as excited about Ghost World as most people seem to be.

Serial killer on the loose.

Wow. Didn't pick that one up from the trailer at all....

Felicity is a he you douchebag!

Art students also tend to look down on us media students as being creatively not as imaginative as them. I think being an art student is a kind of lifestyle rather than just the art. I see them in glasgow sometimes, they walk down the streets and the literally point and laugh at other people, they act disgusted when having to interact with anyone else outside their social culture and I think that is really very unhealthy. I'm certainly not saying all art students are like this, but generally from personal experience art students are one of the least savoury groups of all the student bodies.

I think its because they take such glee in segregating themselves from all other groups. As far as I'm concerned everyone should get along. I do not select my friends based on their background, their past, their groups and their ideals, I base them on how nice and how fun and how interesting they are to me. So I have a wide mix of buds from all different interests and backgrounds. Which can be problematic because some of them are the exact opposites of others and that can cause some conflicts. I don't think ill ever be able to get all my friends to stay in the same room together for long.

Dear Ms. Titwank:

Please excuse my confusion regarding your gender.

Best Regards,

Mr. B. Witherberry

From EAC forum:

I actually really, really liked. Like, a lot. I can understand why it's not getting good WOM or reviews though. It's essentially two different films with two completely different tones, and I can see that being difficult for a lot of people. I thought it worked perfectly, though. If you go in expecting a straight forward comedy, you're gonna be let down. Yeah, it has some extremely funny moments (pretty much the entire first half is constantly hilarious), but the second half is an extremely dark and arty murder mystery (bordering on downright noir at times) with almost no laughs to be found. The drastic tonal shift works because of Zwigoff's masterful direction and Clowe's fantastic script. Zwigoff's visuals are constantly beautiful, and he keeps the film moving along at a nice clip. Clowe's script is peppered with great dialogue and interesting characters.

So, yeah... the first half is a spot on satire of art school life with some of the funniest bits you'll see all year, and the second half is a dark and brooding murder mystery shot with an artistry I hadn't seen in Zwigoff's previous work. It also has a great statement on the fickleness of those whom declare what art is great and what art isn't. I really enjoyed it.

A

Never dropped my review in here. I went into this completely blind... while I've checked this page before, I hadn't seen the trailer or read a review going into the flick.... and I completely enjoyed it. Thoroughly...

I'm not going to give it an A-grade - there are certainly flaws about this movie which really do hold it back from being perfect. I'm also not sure if I like the remarkably different tone the second half had to the first, though it all fits rather nicely together at the end. Parts were too conventional and cliched at times, as well...

I'm keeping this vague - as usual - so not to spoil anything. The acting is mostly solid, at times brilliant, and the director often adds quite a visual flair to things (the strangling scene, for instance... loved it... especially with the classical music). Overall, it's a very enjoyable experience, even if not a masterpiece.

I look forward to hearing from dolce and the rest of you... go out and see this! B/B+

Oh, and three other points:

1. I seriously love John Malkovich.
2. The whole opening fit so well. I was so into the "art scene" at the school. Haha. It works. Dolce should appreciate this.
3. I want an ASC avatar, makeshift.

I loved the way Jerome adopted the "artist lifestyle". He was chain smoking and binge drinking within a week.

Seriously, the satire in this film was spot on. Anyone who's even known a self proclaimed artist will get a huge kick out of it.

I did enjoy that. I also enjoyed Jerome's "stressed out" aquired habits. I did not like the strangler theme at all. It was two poorly woven stories, and I think the frustration of qualitative evaluation, and the first love/coming of age would have been more than enough to get this film through minute 100.

Heh!

dv, once again, you and I seem to have much more aligned tastes here in the Foreign & Independent Film forum, than out there in the big, bad mainstream Hollywood movie world...