Memorable, crazy movie

How sad is this?

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Dear Terry Zwigoff, Art School Confidential was a hilarious film. I have never been to art school so I don't think I got all the jokes. I also know nothing about paintings or modern art. But this film about shy and self absorbed young artist (Max Minghella) and his life at an art school where he meets many eccentric characters, falls in love and his desperate and felonious attempts to achieve fame are as dark and entertaining as Enid's battle against phony's and dullards in Ghost World. Daniel Clowes really packs it in with the jokes and the social commentary. I cannot think of a single unremarkable scene in the whole film. Every single scene is worth watching over and over again. The supporting cast was astonishingly brilliant. Jim Broadbent deserves special mention. I often rewatch the scenes which he appears in. The part where he calls for a plague to wipe off the human race was very well written and acted. The character who is so disillusioned with the state of the human race that he has to murder people for inspiration was very interesting. Adam Scott as the prickly successful artist had one of the best scenes in the whole film. Jeanette Brox was terrific as the irritable and shabbily dressed Milo. Joel David Moore as the lazy art student was the perfect foil for Max Minghella's's tenacious lead character. There were so many other brilliant bit players in the film. I could recognize most of these actors if they appeared in other films. That is how good they were. Art School Confidential, like Ghost World is one of those films where you feel like the characters are your close friends and you can empathize with their plight in the face of a cruel and indifferent world. Best Regards, Pimpin. (10/10)

Terry Zwigoff's films often revolve around artists. Consider "Louie Bluie", which dealt with country blues musician Howard Armstrong, or "Crumb", a macabre film produced by David Lynch which dealt with, amongst other things, the life of Robert Crub, a dysfunctional artist and illustrator who turns to art as a means of escaping emotional and physical abuse. Years later Zwigoff would direct "Ghost World", in which a young woman struggles to become an artist in a world which demands pragmatism and conformity. Problem is, our hero artist, despite being well-meaning and beautifully idealistic, is as vapid and smug as those she defines herself against.So Zwigoff's films increasingly shatter various romantic myths associated with "the artist". This is seen most clearly in "Art School Confidential", the tale of Jerome, a squeaky-clean young artist whose work demonstrates impeccable (if second-hand) technique, but is nevertheless perceived as being devoid of personality, originality and content. Indeed, Jerome's art seems personal only when he is fawning over and sketching a young woman whom he is infatuated with.In an attempt to win accolades, Jerome thus steals the "deep work" of an ostracised, morbid and hugely tortured painter (this painter's morbid art is the result of him being ignored for decades by audiences). But still Jerome and his stolen art are ignored. The public, the film goes on to say, appreciates art only insofar as there is some consistently between how the work is perceived and how the artist as a public persona is perceived. Meanwhile, a talentless cop pretends to be a painter and wins accolades for his simple paintings. The audience loves this connect between naive paintings and a naive painter. The public wants authenticity, a lack of pretence, truth...but also sensationalism. When Jerome poses as a mass murderer his stolen paintings suddenly make him an international superstar. In other words, the worth of his paintings only went up when extrinsic factors came into play: the belief that Jerome had hidden, secret, dark depths. More so than other Zwigoff films, "Art School Confidential" brims with anger. This is Zwigoff moving into bitter, Todd Solondz territory. It's a film about an art world which is deeply competitive, in which sensationalism has superseded art, in which what constitutes "good art" or "any art" is intangible and fickle and in which sham and sincerity are hard to gauge. Zwigoff is obsessed with the relationship art has to its creators, consumers and critics, but views all three with a certain amount of scorn. Critics fail to see, consumers fawn over celebrity and luridness and creators are driven by competitiveness, commerce, bitterness, ego and a pathological urge to connect back to or vengefully get back at society; to persecute others. In addition to this, all three groups fail to healthily separate artist/person from art/subject. This is art as being inherently vindictive and artists being hopelessly dysfunctional, driven by primal needs for sexual and material validation, acquisition and ownership. Like "Crumb", Zwigoff portrays artists as being bullied, vengeful and predisposed to self-hate, misogyny and misanthropy at best, and being deluded, clueless air-heads at worst. Audiences fare no better, more infatuated with serial killers and blood that anything else."Art School Confidential" is a good film, dark, funny and hits upon many truths, but Zwigoff's tone is unrelentingly grim and pessimistic. It's indicative of a certain postmodern trend. It's no longer that the universe is "meaningless, random, absurd and stupid" so lets resign to playfully making "films about meaningless, absurd and stupid universes" (Woody, Solondz, the Coens etc), but that now all art or representation of such absurdities is itself an absurd gesture. In other words, we move beyond the "it's just a joke, a game, a genre rift" of postmodernity, to an overt statement that representation itself is debased and now no longer worth it; meta-nihilism squared. "Art School Confidential" doesn't necessarily say this – it's not as anti-art as some claim – but it is representative of a growing trend.8/10 – Worth one viewing. See "Exit Through the Gift Shop", "Ghost World" and "The Shape of Things".

Max Minghella stars in another Terry Zwigoff(Ghost world) comedic masterpiece, Art school confidential. I never saw his first,Crumb, loved his second, Ghost world, never saw Bad Santa, and his last movie, Art school confidential, almost tops Ghost world, which is one of my favorite films.Minghella plays Jerome, a artsy virgin who goes to Art school to achieve his dream and be like his idol,Picasso. He has the potential of being an artist. He is excellent,but the morons at the school prefer something more simple and stupid. Kind of like the portion of "Ghost world" which involves Enid at the art class.Jerome falls for a model(Sophia Myles) named Audrey, who poses at the school. But she soon falls for Jonah(played by Matt Keasler), who's crappy amateur art work draws everyone's interest for some reason. Amidst all of this, there is a serial killer loose on campus who is strangling everyone.This isn't quite as good as Ghost world. The ending isn't really resolved as much as it should, and though funny, the class is annoying. But Art school confidential is very interesting and funny. And fun.Some of it is a little too familiar on the Zwigoff side. The cast is excellent. It also includes John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Angelica Huston, and Steve Buscemi. Art school confidential isn't perfect. Ghost world is. But Art school confidential is still a good movie. See it.3.5/4

First the good points ............. The idea seems fresh, even if you have seen all the first college semester movies out there. The lead, Max Minghella is convincing as the wannabe great artist. The presence of John Malkovich, Michael Lerner, and Angelica Huston adds immeasurably. For the first hour or so the movie holds interest with the outrageous art projects. It is at this point that the movie takes an unexpected, and questionable turn. Now the bad points ............. The female lead, artists model, seems both miscast and rather unremarkable. Sophia Myles is never convincing as a love interest. Finally, the ending is both unbelievable, and unsatisfying. More good than bad, still misses the mark, but not by much. - MERK