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Movies / On DVD / Art School Confidential
Art School Confidential

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Art School Confidential (2006)

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Reviews Counted:131

Fresh:47

Rotten:84

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.

Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for language including sexual references, nudity and a scene of violence.

Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins

Genre: Comedies

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... "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 [More]

Starring: Max Minghella, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Ezra Buzzington

Starring: Max Minghella, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Ezra Buzzington, Sophia Myles, Matt Keeslar, Anjelica Huston, Steve Buscemi, Adam Scott, Nick Swardson, Paul Collins, Roxanne Hart

Director: Terry Zwigoff

Director: Terry Zwigoff
Screenwriter: Daniel Clowes
Producer: Russell Smith, Daniel Clowes
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

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Reviews for Art School Confidential

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1 - 20 (sorted by source; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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This sharply drawn satire gets so much about art school right.

Full Review Source: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) | comment Comment
05/12/06
John Wirt
John Wirt
Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)

grabs you by the backpack and sends you hurtling into a realm of false praise, vicious backbiting and pretentious gallery openings. A rich, bleedingly authentic cast of characters emerges.

Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | comment Comment
05/11/06
Phil Villarreal
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

It's pleasant enough, features fine acting in smaller parts, rises occasionally to laughs or plot, but its ambitions and its accomplishments are modest.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
05/11/06
Richard Nilsen
Richard Nilsen
Arizona Republic

...if the lack of chemistry between the leads and the glued-together nature of the plot bring the movie down, they don't totally extinguish its subversive spirit.

Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | comment Comment
05/15/06
Philip Martin
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

It's often as naive as it is knowing and can feel as unfocused and sketchy as a film one of Strathmore's students might make.

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
05/11/06
Steve Murray
Steve Murray
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
06/03/06
Marrit Ingman
Marrit Ingman
Austin Chronicle

Art School Confidential constitutes two-thirds of a worthy follow-up to Ghost World, but it doesn't feel nearly as substantial.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
04/27/06
Nathan Rabin
Nathan Rabin
AV Club

It becomes the sort of thing Zwigoff usually holds in contempt, and how depressing is that?

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
05/12/06
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe

In almost any medium, Art School Confidential would draw a failing grade.

Full Review Source: Boulder Weekly | comment Comment
05/19/06
Thomas Delapa
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly

Art School Confidential's various plotlines never quite gel to form a cohesive whole.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
05/05/06
Francesca Dinglasan
Francesca Dinglasan
Boxoffice Magazine

Bitterness can carry us only so far in a movie. Director Terry Zwigoff and writer Daniel Clowes, who adapted his own comic book, don't know what to do after they've impaled their targets.

Full Review Source: Charlotte Observer | comment Comment
05/11/06
Lawrence Toppman
Lawrence Toppman
Charlotte Observer

Takes some getting used to, but ends up being as bleak as Zwigoff's coal-blackened Bad Santa.

Full Review Source: Charlotte Weekly | comment Comment
05/12/06
Sean O'Connell
Sean O'Connell
Charlotte Weekly

Even if one disagrees with some of its points, as I do, it offers plenty to mull over.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
05/12/06
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader

There is something in the Zwigoffian universe that values such characters [as Jimmy]; having abandoned all illusions, they offer the possibility of truth. I also much enjoyed Broadway Bob.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
05/12/06
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Risks more highs and lows than the plaintive, even-toned Ghost World. But both, improbably, have made themselves more or less at home on screen.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
05/11/06
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune

Zwigoff captures quite well the backstab aspects of this world, its rampant phoney baloneyness. But his funk doesn't allow him to capture something far more enticing: the power of true artistry.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
05/04/06
Peter Rainer
Peter Rainer
Christian Science Monitor

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 Source: Christianity Today | comment Comment
09/01/06
Peter T. Chattaway
Peter T. Chattaway
Christianity Today

It's almost fascinating to watch Art School Confidential slowly start coming apart before it finally crashes and burns.

Full Review Source: CHUD | comment Comment
05/04/06
Devin Faraci
Devin Faraci
CHUD

If you're an art student, you'll probably buy the movie on DVD and rub it all over your body.

Full Review Source: CinemaBlend.com | comment Comment
05/14/06
Joshua Tyler
Joshua Tyler
CinemaBlend.com

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 Source: Cinematical | comment Comment
02/01/08
Karina Longworth
Karina Longworth
Cinematical
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by source; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
all

Latest News for Art School Confidential

September 14, 2007: Zwigoff, Clowes to Assemble $40,000 Man
The creative duo responsible for Ghost World and Art School Confidential has found its next project. More...

August 27, 2007: Video Exclusive: Sophia Myles talks Hallam Foe with RT
We chat to the supremely lovely British actress about her latest role in David Mackenzie's new film. More...

May 14, 2006: Box Office Wrapup: "Mission: Impossible 3" Beats "Poseidon" to Remain at #1
Tom Cruise's spy sequel Mission: Impossible III remained the most popular film in North America for the second straight weekend while the big-budget disaster film Poseidon... More...

May 07, 2006: Box Office Wrapup: "Mission: Impossible III" Big, But Not Huge at #1
Tom Cruise climbed into his usual number one spot at the box office with his heavily-hyped spy sequel Mission: Impossible III, however ticket sales fell below most industry... More...

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