ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL 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 dnb@dca.net
Got beef? Visit "La Movie Boeuf" online at http://members.dca.net/dnb
-- rec-arts-movies-reviews@robomod.net mailing list http://www.robomod.net/mailman/listinfo/rec-arts-movies-reviews
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews