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MOVIES / ON DVD / ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL
Art School Confidential

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Art School Confidential (2006)

36%
40%
62%
N/A
N/A
N/A
36 %
Reviews Counted: 127 Fresh: 46  Rotten:81 Average Rating: 5.4/10
 
Consensus: Art School's misanthropy is too sour, its targets too flat and cliched, and Clowes and Zwigoff stumble when trying to build a story around the premise. Art School's misanthropy is too sour, its targets too flat and cliched, and Clowes and Zwigoff stumble when trying to build a story around the premise. more
 
Rated: 15
Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins
Theatrical Release: 00-00-0000
Synopsis:
"Art School Confidential" follows a talented young artist Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) as he escapes from high school to a tiny East Coast art school. Here the boyish freshman's ambition is to become the world's greatest artist, like his hero Picasso. Unfortunately, the beauty and... [More]
"Art School Confidential" follows a talented young artist Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) as he escapes from high school to a tiny East Coast art school. Here the boyish freshman's ambition is to become the world's greatest artist, like his hero Picasso. Unfortunately, the beauty and craft of Jerome's portraiture are not appreciated in an anything-goes art class that he finds bewildering and bogus. Neither his harsh judgments of his classmates' efforts or his later attempts to create pseudo-art of his own win him any admirers. But Jerome does attract the attentions of his dream girl — the stunning and sophisticated Audrey (Sophia Myles) — an artist's model and daughter of a celebrated artist. Rejecting the affectations of the local art scene, Audrey is drawn to Jerome's sincerity. When Audrey shifts her attentions to Jonah (Matt Keeslar), a hunky painter who becomes the school's latest art star, Jerome is heartbroken. Desperate, he concocts a risky plan to make a name for himself and win her back. Filling out Jerome's world are a host of offbeat characters, including: a quirky art teacher (John Malkovich) who takes an extra-curricular interest in Jerome; a failed artist (Jim Broadbent), drowning in alcohol and self-pity; a regal art history professor (Anjelica Huston) Jerome tries to influence; a coffee shop owner-cum-art impresario (Steve Buscemi) swelling with self-importance; a worldly classmate (Joel David Moore), who introduces Jerome in the intricate mores of campus life; and Jerome's filmmaker roommate (Ethan Suplee), exploding with energy to create a cinematic masterpiece. United Artists and Sony Pictures Classics present Terry Zwigoff's "Art School Confidential," starring Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Matt Keeslar, Steve Buscemi and Anjelica Huston. The film is produced by Lianne Halfon, John Malkovich and Russell Smith, partners in the production company Mr. Mudd, which also produced "Ghost World." Based on Daniel Clowes' short comic story of the same name, "Art School Confidential" is directed by Zwigoff from a screenplay by Clowes. --© Sony Pictures Classics [Less]

Genre: Comedies

Starring: Max Minghella, John Malkovich, Ezra Buzzington, Sophia Myles, Matt Keeslar

Director: Terry Zwigoff
Screenwriter: Daniel Clowes

DVD Info

Release:

Oct 10, 2006

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Keep Case
  • Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
  • Dolby Surround Sound - French, Portuguese, Spanish
  • Subtitles - Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish - Optional

Additional Release Material:

  • Additional Footage - Testimonials
  • Alternate Scenes - Deleted Scenes (12)
  • Behind the Scenes - "Making-of ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL"
  • Featurettes - Sundance Film Festival
  • Outtakes - Blooper Reel
  • Trailers - Previews

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Ratings Image

A stilted satire of teenage passion and apathy, sex and death and crime...so concerned with aping style that it never bothers to consider its characters as people.

Full Review | Comment
02/01/08 11:12 PM
Karina Longworth
Cinematical
Ratings Image

It's the work of two misanthropes in an even worse mood than usual.

Full Review | Comment
07/23/07 07:16 AM
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com
Ratings Image

Simultaneously champions creative desire while calling out the artistic realm's share of pretentious blowhards.

Full Review | Comment
07/03/07 11:48 AM
Rob Humanick
Projection Booth
Ratings Image

An ingenious satire of the pretentious mindset of the elitist art world from the perspective of a rapidly-disillusioned kid who had no idea what he was getting into.

Full Review | Comment
05/20/07 08:10 PM
Kam Williams
DallasBlack.com
Ratings Image

Making fun of art students is like shooting Darwin fish in a barrel.

Full Review | Comment
03/24/07 11:13 AM
Brian Tallerico
UGO
Ratings Image

Suffers from snail-like pacing, an underwhelming central character and the "shooting fish in a barrel" syndrome: The film's targets are all too obvious.

Full Review | Comment
03/01/07 03:54 AM
Lewis Beale
Film Journal International
Ratings Image

Maybe this material isn't entirely fresh, but Zwigoff delivers it with the snap of a quick punch to the face -- which is, in fact, the first image in the film, and a model for innumerable excellent sight gags to follow.

Full Review | Comment
11/11/06 06:56 AM
Stuart Klawans
Nation
Ratings Image

...generally comes off as nothing less than a substantial disappointment.

Full Review | Comment
10/13/06 09:31 PM
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews
Ratings Image

The few characters we might have cared for become increasingly shallow, and it all lapses into clichés about the relationship between art and infamy, between personal integrity and selling your soul, and so on.

Full Review | Comment
09/01/06 02:47 PM
Peter T. Chattaway
Christianity Today
Ratings Image

Curiously, this relentlessly cynical tone turns out sounding refreshingly original compared to the usual pieties in the genre.

Full Review | Comment
07/12/06 03:24 PM
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
Ratings Image

The true merit of the movie is the momentary pleasures of the dialogue and the performances, but the story itself leaves you wanting. So, is it art? Looks like it.

Full Review | Comment
06/16/06 04:13 PM
Karina Montgomery
Cinerina
Ratings Image

Has the makings of a mediocre, after-school sitcom

Full Review | Comment
06/09/06 06:32 AM
Marty Mapes
Movie Habit
Ratings Image

Rather than observing the intimate details that make an Art School project special, the filmmakers opt to focus on Art School partying (i.e., drinking and vomiting) instead.

Full Review | Comment
06/03/06 04:25 AM
David N. Butterworth
rec.arts.movies.reviews
Ratings Image

Unfortunately, Clowes' script is lame and littered with stereotypes, and the performances of Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent and Anjelica Huston can't save it.

Full Review | Comment
06/03/06 04:25 AM
Jean Lowerison
San Diego Metropolitan
Ratings Image

It’s fine that this film feels uncomfortable indulging the shopworn tropes of coming-of-age story or black comedy or romance or mystery thriller, but, well, ambivalence is self-propagating.

Full Review | Comment
06/03/06 04:25 AM
Jonathan Kiefer
Sacramento News & Review
Ratings Image

This smarty-pants campus yarn is on fire with satire.

Full Review | Comment
06/03/06 04:25 AM
Marrit Ingman
Austin Chronicle
Ratings Image

Director Terry Zwigoff and comic book artist-turned-screenwriter Daniel Clowes follow up their Ghost World success with a less satisfying collaboration.

Full Review | Comment
06/03/06 04:25 AM
Susan Tavernetti
Palo Alto Weekly
Ratings Image

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.

Full Review | Comment
06/02/06 12:04 PM
Mark R. Leeper
rec.arts.movies.reviews
Ratings Image

The end itself is unsatisfying, as is the movie as a whole. It's unfortunate, especially when you consider what might have been.

Full Review | Comment
05/22/06 09:12 AM
Jeanne Kaplan
Kaplan vs. Kaplan
Ratings Image

It's quirky, it's campy, and it's meant to be a dark comedy, but unfortunately, funny scenes like the ones that occur early on in this film are nowhere to be found later.

Full Review | Comment
05/22/06 09:10 AM
David Kaplan
Kaplan vs. Kaplan
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Related Forums

This movie was way overlooked!
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Around the Network

• Art School Confidential at Rotten Tomatoes
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• Art School Confidential at AskMen
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