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Art School Confidential

2006, Movie, R, 102 mins

Art School Confidential: Review

ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL
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While not as relentlessly awful as BAD SANTA, Terry Zwigoff's third feature also doesn’t come close to fulfilling the promise he showed in his documentary debut, CRUMB, or in the marvelous GHOST WORLD. This failure is especially surprising because Zwigoff not only reunited with GHOST WORLD's writer, ingenious graphic artist Dan Clowes, but he aimed to satirize a rarefied sphere both know all too well: the art world. Lured by the promise of becoming a real, working artist — and by the comely blonde life model in the school's brochure — virginal Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) arrives at the New York City-area Strathmore Institute ready to embark on his exciting new career trajectory. First he meets his oddball roommates: fey fashion-design student Matthew (Nick Swardson), who really misses his, er, girlfriend, and boorish, Kevin Smith-esque aspiring filmmaker Vince (Ethan Suplee), who's currently developing a script based on the serial stranglings that have occurred around Strathmore's campus. As Jerome sets about fulfilling his twin goals of becoming the next Picasso and losing his virginity, he meets the one person who might help on both fronts: Audrey (Sophia Myles), the pretty blonde from the brochure who just happens to be the daughter of a famous pop artist and, consequently, an art-world insider who makes extra money modeling for Professor Sandiford's (John Malkovich) painting-and-drawing class. Jerome's hopes, however, are dashed when it becomes clear that Audrey prefers Jonah (Matt Keeslar), a disconcertingly normal guy whose naive paintings of tanks and sports cars have generated the biggest buzz on campus. Jonah will probably get the highest final grade at the upcoming student show, which means he'll also get to show his work at the downtown coffeehouse/gallery/art-stardom launch pad run by the obnoxious Broadway Bob (Steve Buscemi). Jerome, however, isn't about to sit back and lose Audrey and his dream to a talentless jock. He conspires to steal the work of a drunken, embittered former student from way back (Jim Broadbent), not realizing that in so doing he's entangling his own fate with that of the mysterious Stratford Strangler. Minghella is well cast as a naif who gets force-fed a reality knuckle-sandwich, but the plotting is too loose and episodic for his character to coalesce in any meaningful way. Ditto the film itself: Caught between film noir, social satire and college comedy, it never finds its footing or its rhythm — also BAD SANTA's fatal flaw. And coming from two artists who've done surprisingly well for themselves, Clowes and Zwigoff's dyspeptic take on who makes it in the art industry sounds like a high-pitched, irritating whine. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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