Art School Confidential

Plot synopsis:
Starting from childhood attempts at illustration, young Jerome pursues his true obsession to art school. Jerome enrolls in Strathmore, an urban college. His roommates are aspiring filmmaker Vince and closeted-gay fashion major Matthew. Jerome looks for love amongst the coeds, but is turned off by them all, before falling in love with the art model, Audrey. In his art classes, he forms a friendship with perennial loser, Bardo, who guides him through the college scene and introduces him to a failed artist, Jimmy, a belligerent drunk.
As Jerome learns how the art world really works, he finds that he must adapt his vision to the reality that confronts him. The community has been wracked by a serial killer, the Strathmore Strangler, who has confounded the police. As Jerome slowly loses his idealism at art school, he finds himself in competition with a strange newcomer, Jonah (an undercover detective), both for Audrey's affection and for artistic recognition.
In a wild attempt to win a prestigious art competition, Jerome asks for, and gets, Jimmy's paintings, all of which are of the Strangler's victims. Jerome leaves a lit cigarette in Jimmy's apartment by accident, setting a fire and burning up the apartment and Jimmy. The police arrest Jerome as the Strangler (who in fact was Jimmy); Audrey realizes that her true love is Jerome and that she was stupid to be in love with Jonah (who is actually married); and Jerome is sent to prison. Jerome's paintings, especially one of Audrey, become prized by collectors; Vince scores a huge hit with his documentary of the Strangler called My Roommate: The Murderer. In prison, Jerome continues to paint and sells his works at high prices, not caring that people think he is the killer, while all the while Audrey is still in love with him. At the end, Audrey and Jerome share a kiss through the protective glass.

Tags: romantic, comedy, murder, flashback

Review:
When Jerome (Max Minghella), the main character, begins attending his freshman year at Strathmore Art School, he's quickly introduced to the cliché-riddled cast (the cliché 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.
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.
This college is a tiny but colourful world populated with a large array of weird and quirky characters, all of them "artists", and in comes young, boyish, quiet Jerome trying to be an artist like all of them.Upon entering his dorm room, he encounters his two roommates, a fat film major (Ethan Suplee) working on a short film based on some murders that have been terrorizing the campus grounds, and a noticeably gay fashion major (Nick Swardson) who swears he misses his girlfriend.And in his most important class, little Jerome meets his holier-than-thou professor (John Malkovich) who's so full of himself to actually notice any of his students' work, a flunkie (Joel David Moore) who enrolled into art school just for the 'pussy', and...a gorgeous, sophisticated model (Sophia Myles) who also happens to be the daughter of a famous painter and who instantly becomes Jerome's muse and obsession.Throughout the film, which is perfectly written and refreshingly funny, we follow Jerome's steady psychological downfall.
This happens because his art isn't appreciated at all, because he notices how arbitrary and tediously unnerving the "art world" really is, and because his muse and obsession doesn't pay him any attention and prefers to mingle with a hunky, handsome new art student who also becomes the number one artist in school and who's "art" (if it can even be called that) Jerome loathes above anything else.Why brings me back to the initial question: how do you know if something is really "art"?
The movie did not disappoint.The beginning of the film is about what I expected- cute, off-beat story about a talented geek who goes to art school and pursues the girl of his dreams.
I think that those who felt the movie started as an excellent parody of art schools but then failed by turning dark, you've missed the point.
What was great about Ghost World, what was its main superiority over Art School Confidential, is that it had enough subtlety to stay an engaging, deep movie, while this comes off more like a flick-for-fun.
Right in the middle, the movie took a turn of tone and with it took the refreshingly simple but fun plot.Art School Confidential suddenly became serious about its characters, including the mysterious strangler.
At the heart of comic darkness, after all, violence and danger always lurk.Veteran performers John Malkovich and Anjelica Huston (both arts faculty members), Jim Broadbent (an embittered, alcoholic painter) and Steve Buscemi (a club owner who sponsors shows for aspiring talents) all shine brightly in comedic support of the principal young romantic leads, the only two straight players in the movie: Max Minghella (Jerome, a sober, earnest fellow who merely wants to be the 21st Century's best painter) and Sophia Myles (Audrey, the equally serious human drawing model who steals Jerome's heart).A clutch of lesser known actors lend vital elements to the humorous proceedings: among the best are Ethan Suplee (Vince, a manicky film student), Joel Moore (Bardo, Jerome's cynical sidekick), Adam Scott (Marvin Bushmiller, the successful, vainglorious alum), and Jack Ong (Professor Okamura, a sourpuss art teacher).People who are unfamiliar with the world of elitist art education may not appreciate this movie.
For me, this is Zwigoff's best work since "Crumb." I also seem to be among a minority who think it is way better than "Ghost World," the first collaboration between Zwigoff and graphic comic writer Daniel Clowes, who wrote the screenplays for "GW" and "Art School Confidential." If you liked Peter Chelsom's "Funny Bones" or Emir Kusturica's "Underground," chances are you'll like this film too.
It is not truly the craft of drawing and painting, it's about gimmick and career moves that will make the success.Lots of envy, predatory behavior and despair.I loved the movie because it shows, metaphorically the true nature of the art scene and what the life of the 'art star' looks like - they are locked in their self imposed prison surrounded by money making machine as a price of fame.I thought that story was well told, that the murder implication was just great.
With Art School Confidential, Zwigoff/Clowes have not only grown as a filmmaker/writer ensemble but have provided us with one of the best cynical stabs at the artistic medium ever portrayed on camera (with a very tightly plotted and unpredictable script).
Terry Zwigoff presents you true art and the meaning of art, both Viusal and Film.It sure is pain in the ass and no one can better explain that to you than this film.The film is about a young teenager trying to pursue a career in Art in an art school.But before he can do so, he must learn a few things about what art really is.His obsession to art school and his vision combine with the teachers minds who pretty much spend their whole time relating art with life.And in a art school where amateur art is more appreciated than professional,visionary art.But soon when he meets a women , his life takes a turn.Though,he has a nemesis to face to win the girls heart.Apparently,the nemesis' work,which is just plain childish according to our hero,is widely appreciated.So the competition begins.But as he desperately tries and loses,and gets advices from a drunken ,washed out,but talented artist,he drifts himself apart from art.But things take a big change for our depressed,lost hero,when he is gets involved in a murder mystery ,where he is the primary suspect.Art school confidential has ideas.Lot's of intriguing offbeat ideas.And while it tries to be funny and offbeat but it fails in the end.Tries to make a successful satire out of art,but it fails to churn up even one great laugh.And it's boring at times,it just dangles around emphasizing what art really is, without actually telling us what it really is.It just mingles and experiments with the concept of art and tries to make something out of it ,pretty much throughout the film.It's characters slowly become pathetic and uninteresting.It's situations becomes absurd and pointless.It just disappoints.But despite all that,it's fun.It sure is entertaining,but it could've been really big if any of the filmmakers even tried once.And when the plot shifts to its murder mystery,it gets even worse.It's something I didn't expect.It's got a few good moments,but it's not enough for a premise like this.The film daringly tries to make a point by shouting out loud that art schools suck.They're waste of time and just there to rip you off your cash.The students are taught by a bunch of old failures trying to make a living passing on their failures to the new generation.It would've been better as a satire than an attached murder mystery.I mean,there's nothing wrong with the murder mystery drama thing,but I just wanted to see a proper satire here.Instead of some predictable resolution to the whole mystery.It's got some good twists and turns ,but in the end it's all too obvious.It's half baked as a love story ,and neither is it emotionally touching.Way too contrived and convoluted unintentionally.Too jumbled up.With the exception of Broadbant,the rest of the cast is just fine.Minghella tries but can't be more than average,although he gets the character's depressing sadness.Malkovich is just a waste of talent and one would expect a lot from him.As original as it tries to be,in the end it goes for the conventional ending.The writer,who is adapting his own book,just has no clue what he's doing and what he wants to convey most of the times.The writer focused more on the comic elements of the film rather than finding a way to solve the mysteries of the plot that can hardly fit the way it is written.It sometimes feels disconnected from the material, I mean at times you feel like watching different short movies in one film with same actors in different situations and hardly relate to the story.And the director seems to go along with it,giving us as much entertainment and fun out of it as he is able to.This film at times becomes hard to watch as it mixes so many elements that if succeeded in mixing them well,it could have achieved remarkable result.But that is not the case in this satire.
Mixing social satire, art school satire,a wicked love story, murder mystery ,and attempting to bring about a coming-of-age story.This doesn't work.It can stand out to be a different approach, even if it's not fully successful ,it still succeeds on entertaining you.With a cop-out ending.For all the true artists out there this film is your lesson.Perhaps..
This is a beautiful movie cleverly disguised as a movie that can't pull off the necessary airs to pass itself off as high art.The key to understanding the movie lies in your being able to home in on the most important factor: That Jerome just might be a great and true artist, bizarrely ensconced in an environment in which everyone is a poseur--and that includes the professors.It's like other Zwigoff movies; like "Bad Santa", for instance.
One of the greatest questions ever asked by mankind is "What is Art?" "Art School Confidential", directed Terry Zwigoff and based on the graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, takes a satirical look at the art world through the students at the fictitious Strathmore college.Jerome (played by Max Mighella) is a freshman at Strathmore who has dreams of being one of the worlds greatest artists.
As Professor Sandiford states in class "only about 1 in 100 of you will ever make a living as an artist" I think he is being rather conservative.The movie also has a side plot of a murder mystery involving the Strathmore Strangler which is a little more than strange, but it does involve a detective going under cover an becoming the most popular painter at the school.
He doesn't care how he becomes famous.Screenwriter Daniel Clowes definitely attended a school like this, because this film is full of artist-type characters, and non-stop jokes about the pretentiousness of art, art historians, competitive students and professors who never made it.The main issue with this film is that it is basically plot less.
There are quite a few jokes along the way but they are mostly just unconnected humorous musings on everything pertaining to art school."Art School Confidential" is certainly related to Clowes' and Terry Zwigoff's previous film "Ghost World" (2001) but I found it much easier to get into.
Jerome, played by Max Minghella, made you want to run up and slap him a dozen times he was so annoyingly precious and wimpy with respect to woman/life but yet he had the balls to point out the ridiculousness of his fellow students work while others orally masturbated and waxed lyrical over some piece of crap.Some better character development of his two roommates especially the Mathew would have been good however there were so many other characters to deal with and so this was understandable.John Malkovich was great as was Anjelica Huston even if she was on screen for just one scene.
Terry Zwigoff made three brilliant movies called Crumb,Ghost world and Bad Santa.His new film,Art school confidential,is not as good as his previous films,but it's great.My favorite part of the movie is the first half.On that part,the movie shows a satiric analysis to the modern art.The second half is very fine,but,sometimes,the script loses the direction.The cast is perfectly chosen but John Malkovich steals the show.His character is of a painting professor.Art school confidential is a great movie and another good step on Zwigoff's career.Rating:8.
And man oh man, what a brilliant title that would be for a film.So lets recap, clichéé dialogue, clichéé characters, bad acting, cliché directing, boring character, waste of talent, waste of time (for the viewer) total disrespect for the audience, Artist/art schools and art students.In closing, I will never, ever use Ebert & Rpoer as barometers for a good film again.
To add insult to injury, a good portion of Art School Confidential was actually shot on location in New York City (a major asset that many lower budget films are not afforded), and yet somehow the director also manages to absolutely waste this opportunity as well, making genuine NYC street scenes look like a Canadian back lot.
Despite the strong cast (John Malkovich, Angelica Huston, and James Broadbent) and promising premise, this film fails by trying to be too many things at once: mindless T&A comedy, cynical black comedy, coming-of-age, mystery, thriller, love story.Sensitive suburban high school artist Jerome (attractive, virginal Max Minghella), is bullied by cute jocks and draws portraits of girls he likes.
Meanwhile, he pursues a figure model who he thinks is the most beautiful girl in the school and who reminds him of a Picasso painting; seeks advice from his art teacher (John Malkovich) and receives a thinly veiled sexual proposition in return; and becomes fascinated by a misanthropic recluse (Jim Broadbent in a wonderfully bizarre and off-kilter performance) who just may be a serial strangler.As with "Ghost World," Zwigoff approaches his material with a very funny but very black sense of humour of the slightly queasy variety.
But Art School Confidential the movie doesn't tell us anything more about the art scene than Ghost World did, largely because even though the cast is uniformly excellent they're playing the sort of characters you've seen in college pictures repeatedly - self-obsessed student-hating lecturers, closeted but obvious gays, John Belushi types, neurotic lesbians etc.
Directed by Terry Zwigoff and written by Daniel Clowes, the same team who made 2001's "Ghost World", the plot focuses squarely on the seemingly soft-spoken and virginal Jerome, who goes to Strathmore Art School with the vague objective of becoming like his idol Picasso as both master artist and equally master womanizer.As he hangs out with Bardo, a slacker who is a recurring student at the school, Jerome meets the girl of his dreams, a pretty, saucy classroom model named Audrey, and an angry philosophizing hermit named Jimmy, who is himself a failed artist late in middle age with little hope for salvation.
Cluttering that main line of story with a silly stalking strangler idea is just plain dumb and accomplishes little except giving an easy out for a finish.Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) is a talented drawing and painting major who enters the hallowed walls of a respected art school and is stuck with rooming with a film maker Vince (Ethan Suplee), a closeted fashion designer, and nebulous Bardo (Joel Moore) and immediately plugs into the array of misfits that fill the classes including hunky Jonah (Matt Kesslar) who garners attention for his Pop art cars from art teacher cum failed artist Professor Sandiford (John Malkovich).
The world of Strathmore College, an art school located in the inner city, is presented as a heavily-satirized den of losers, where Jerome (Max Minghella) is looking to become, in his words, "the greatest living American artist." He rooms with obnoxious film student Vince (Ethan Suplee), who is working on an amateur film about a rash of on-campus murders, naively romances pretty art model Audrey (Sophia Myles, "Underworld"), and is given tragic (yet hilarious) words of wisdom by Jimmy (Jim Broadbent), a burned-out alcoholic and former student.
Art School Confidential (Three and a half stars)Director Terry Zwigoff Writer Daniel Clowes Stars Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Matt Keeslar, Ethan Suplee, Joel Moore, Anjelica Huston Certificate tbc Running time 102 minutes Country USA Year 2006Sometimes when I'm going to write a film review I try to just lean back, soak up my feelings about the movie, and wait for inspiration.
Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes, director and writer of Art School Confidential (second meeting after Ghost World), have here a perplexing convergence of sensibilities.
As the filmmakers get more into the love story portion of the film, then into the serial killer storyline (involving characters with secrets soon revealed), one realizes that a) what little satire is left is overwhelmed by the dourness that accompanies the darker side of Jerome's descent into art-school hell, and b) its star Minghella just can't pull it off totally.
"Art School Confidential" is better than Zwigoff's "Bad Santa" but it is still no where as good as Zwigoff's and Clowes adaptation of "Ghost World.".
Unfortunately, "Art School Confidential" was not worth the wait.The main problem with the film is the little side characters.
There are several moments of "Art School Confidential" that remind me of "Ghost World" however the movie as a whole is no where as good.
The film has some great actors -- John Malkovich, Anjelica Huston, Jim Broadbent -- and Sophia Myles is touching as Jerome's love interest, but the whole thing is lost in a dire plot line.