Review: Art School Confidential (2006)
d...@dca.net
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2006 David N. Butterworth
** (out of ****)
When filmmaker Terry Zwigoff ("Crumb") decided to re-team with
comic book artist Dan Clowes to write and direct "Art School
Confidential," the results could have been sublime. After all, this
prestigious partnership previously brought us 2001's "Ghost World," a
smartly satisfying film in which a couple of social misfits--she a
counter-culture rebel, he a self-deprecating collector of old blues 78s-
-fall in love despite their significant age difference.
Instead, "Art School Confidential" has more in common with
Zwigoff's ridiculous (and bad) "Bad Santa," a film in which Clowes
apparently had no direct hand (although is given a "special thanks
to..." recognition in the end credits). Art school is *the* place for
social outcasts, of course, and the subject matter afforded the
filmmakers a wonderful opportunity to satirize the laid-back, drugged-
out, touchy-feely pool of posers and pretenders, from the 'Dead heads
and Jesus freaks to the born-again photomontage aficionados and Marty
Scorsese wannabes (just a quick glance down the cast of characters
spells it out all too plainly: Hippy Girl, Army Jacket, Bearded Weirdo,
Nerd #1, Preppy Girl, Vegan Holy Man, Nympho, Whiskey John, Baked
Sophomore #1, Angry Lesbian, Beat Girl).
There's a smidgeon of smart send-up in "'Confidential" but not
nearly enough.
Instead, screenwriter Clowes paints his canvas with broad
brushstrokes, rarely taking the time to observe the kind of intimate
details that could have made this project special. Instead, he and
director Zwigoff seem to prefer their frat boy hijinks--drinking,
vomiting, partying (i.e., drinking and vomiting). Lather, rinse,
repeat.
The film centers on Jerome (Max Minghella, sort of a thinking
man's Tobey Maguire and son of "Cold Mountain" director Anthony
Minghella), a kid with an exceptional talent for drawing who applies to-
-and winds up attending--Strathmore U. on the strength of its Fine Arts
brochure (which, I should point out, features a seductively posed model
whom Jerome later befriends).
Art school (again, of course) features enough intrigue and pathos
to bolster half a dozen fledgling features yet "'Confidential"'s plot
throws in a murderous strangler stalking the campus (and includes a
graphic asphyxiation choreographed to some inappropriately baroque
soundtrack music) as well as a couple of cameos, essentially, by "Ghost
World"'s Steve Buscemi as an art-loving/hosting restaurateur and
Anjelica Houston ("The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou") as an art
teacher--she has two short and very textbook scenes. In addition, Jim
Broadbent plays a gross and embarrassing drunk and co-producer John
Malkovich (with considerably less hair than in his previous outing "The
Libertine") is a fine arts professor who spends more time pushing his
own work via cellular than he does engaging his needy students.
Needless to say the film's appealing characters are few and far
between, and there's no one really to root for--not brash Bardo, not
ample Audrey, not jock Jonah--nobody, except perhaps Jerome. It's all
a little obvious, all a little paint-by-numbers. You could say, with
its vulgar humor (of the belching vs. biting kind) and singular lack of
irony, Zwigoff and Clowes' film is disappointingly more "'Animal House"
than art house.
--
David N. Butterworth
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Mark R. 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