Review: Art School Confidential (2006)
Mark Leeper
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Terry Zwigoff directs a satire of art
school life that runs outs of steam and switches
over to a serial killer film. This has the feel
of a beginner's film and has some fun moments
and a good performance by John Malkovich, but
overall does not have enough to keep it going.
Rating: 0 (-4 to +4) or 4/10 Spoiler Warning:
A minor spoiler follows the review.
ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL is only partially what it claims to be. It is
really two different films tied together uneasily. One is story about
the disenchanting experiences of a young freshman in art school. It
is sort of an art school PAPER CHASE showing the weirdness of art
students and faculty and the frustrations that an art student may
expect on the difficult road to success. That would have made an
interesting film in itself, though that sort of thing has done before
with PAPER CHASE and TRUE GENIUS, to name two such films. However,
writer Daniel Clowes (based on his own comic story) apparently realized
that he did not have sufficient material to make that film work so he
threw in a nearly unrelated plot of a serial killer on campus.
Personally I would say that serial killers have been done to death in
films and it seems an act of desperation to throw one in here to
artificially add interest and extend the story. Serial killers I
suspect have little to do with an average art student's experience.
The glue that Clowes uses to tie his two plots together is an irony
borrowed from Martin Scorsese. Two different Scorsese films have
pretty much use this same ironic point and Clowes adopts it. I will
give the specific films in the Spoiler Section after the review.
Jerome Platz (played by Max Minghella) has been the victim of bullies
through his high school career. His one revenge is to draw pictures
of his revenge on the bullies. Art becomes more than a hobby for him
so when he gets a chance he enrolls in the Strathmore Institute of Art.
There he can be in with many other misfits, many with their own
outlandish way of getting attention. Also a major attraction for him
is the chance to see and draw naked models. Much of the student body
is made up of pretentious jerks. The professors are mostly apathetic
and self-absorbed with little real interest in the students. His
premier teacher is Professor Sandiford (John Malkovich who looking a
lot like Pablo Picasso) and while his art looks to the viewer as
showing talent, the class seems to put his work down and instead
idolize that of class hero Jonah (Matt Keeslar). But more than talent
is needed since, as Sandiford says, only one percent of the class will
ever make a living at art. Strathmore Graduate Jimmy (Jim Broadbent)
had talent and still ended up a campus legend, a burned out alcoholic
hanging around campus, and an object lesson to aspiring art students.
Jerome does make friends with one attractive model, Audrey Baumgarten
(Sophia Myles), the daughter of a famous artist. Oh, and there is
also a serial killer who is preying on people in the community.
I suspect that this film was really inspired by somebody's experiences
at an art school similar to Strathmore, but the problems the script
exposes are likely to be true in any academic environment, and the
complaints just seem to be grousing. The name "confidential" seems to
imply that something really shocking will be revealed. There is
little in this film anyone would want to keep private. Terry Zwigoff
previously directed CRUMB, GHOST WORLD, and BAD SANTA. Personally I
liked only GHOST WORLD of the three, but all these films had some bite
and anger to them. Here the complaints are more like that Jerome's
classmates did not appreciate his art. He got an A, but everybody got
an A. That is a little weak. Max Minghella who plays Jerome Platz,
is the son of Anthony Minghella who directed THE ENGLISH PATIENT, THE
TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, and COLD MOUNTAIN. Max was previously the
musical son in BEE SEASON.
Terry Zwigoff really needed a better script to work from. This film
about an innocent learning the ropes seems to be written by a
scriptwriter who is also an innocent learning the ropes. I rate ART
SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale or 4/10.
Spoiler: The two films I refer to are TAXI DRIVER and THE KING OF
COMEDY, films that I think tell very much the same story in two very
different environments. It is not quite the same story here but the
Jerome finds much the same path to success.
Mark R. Leeper
mle...@optonline.net
Copyright 2006 Mark R. Leeper