Terry Zwigoff is a small but colorful resume. In Art School Confidential he once again adapts a Daniel Clowes comic to the screen (the also worked together on 2001’s Ghost World. His quirky insight is definitley present here and even if the film has a few faults; if you or anyone you know has gone to art school you HAVE to see this film because the first half is priceless. The film is out in limited release today and we’ve got the review.
Art School Confidential
3 & 1/2 Stars
Have you or anyone you’ve known gone to art school? If the answer is yes than this deliciously on-the-nose look will have you chuckling from the get-go. Not the funniest or most complete film of director Terry Zwigoff‘s career, but it has more than enough worth seeing to make me recommend it to you.
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Jerome (Max Minghella) is the sensitive shy artist you knew in high school always sketching something on his pad. Of course this means he got beat up quite a lot as the film aptly presents. More than anything he wants to become a great artist.
Jerome gets accepted into an art school and his love of art is met with the harsh realities he never saw in the brochure. The nude model Audrey (Sophia Miles) in the brochure turns out to be smart, sexy clever and friendly but also more interested in Jonah (Matt Keeslar) who is built like a football star and creates pop culture paintings that make Jerome want to kill himself.
His professors (John Mallkovich, Jack Ong, and Angelica Huston) give him conflicting advice and his love of art is tested when classes seem to respect anything drawn or painted rather than actually examining it’s worth. Through his new friend Bardo (Joel Moore) he learns to to notice and group his classmates into categories and also meets a crazed middle aged artist (Jim Broadbent) that gives him the frank truth about what art school really is (I dare you to defy his logic).
Of course there are other items of interest like Jerome’s two roomates. One (Ethan Suplee in a pretty obvious Kevin Smith parody) is obsessed with making a film on the recent serial killer who has been prowling the college and the other is so obviously gay to everyone but himself. Oh yeah, did I mention there was a serial killer?
The first half or two-thirds of the film works really well as a comedy especially in the art school classes, students and teachers, and Jerome’s constant disappointment. The small stabs and asides at the art world and at art schools in particular are very funny and provide all of the best moments of the film. When the film is looking at this world it is at its best but when it starts to leave that world for the Jerome/Audrey/Jonah love triangle and the strangler storyline it starts to level off though there is some, if starkly dark, payoff with the whole thing at the end.
Although the film does eventually level off and eventually trainwrecks into an ending the movie still works because the beginning and middle are so strong. While not as funny as Bad Santa Zwigoff does find infinite areas to joke, mock, and laugh about. It’s not his best work but with the insights into art school and terrific supporting performances by the likes of Malkovich, Husten, and Steve Buscemi among many others are more than enough reason to see this picture. Though not great art it’s still worth a cursory glance or two so get down to the art show when you get a chance.