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.
Art School Confidential (2006)
Tomatometer
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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
Reviews for Art School Confidential
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.
Cynically presents a culture of weirdos who wouldn't know talent if it poked them in the eye with a paintbrush.
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.
If you’re expecting another Enid, forget it. That kind of lightning only strikes once.
Less satisfying overall than it could have been, it nonetheless boasts a sublime cynicism and just enough of a twinkle in its metaphorical eye to let most of us in on the joke
Fails to find a suitably funny or illuminating target at which to direct [its] mordant negativity.
Starts out as a great movie that eventually devolves into a pretty good one.
An admittedly amusing, completely miserable picture filled with too-easy yuks that make you feel cheap and dirty the second you're done chuckling.
Displays an affectionate/mocking attention to detail that extends into countless memorable little touches and peripheral characters.
This might have played better if the same riffs weren't already explored in Six Feet Under.
Zwigoff too often picks up his putty knife when he should be running with scissors...doesn't quite add up to the sum of its parts, but some of the parts are pretty amusing all the same.
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.
In handing such a major role to such an untested actor (he's the son of film director Anthony Minghella), Zwigoff takes a risk that ultimately doesn't pay off.
Though Minghella is a fine actor, there's not a lot he can do with what is essentially a stick figure.
Every teacher is a burn-out, every student is a fraud and experimental artists are the worst burn-outs and frauds of all.
Jerome eventually learns that talent has nothing to do with the success he craves - and, sadly, talented filmmakers and actors don't add up to much in Art School Confidential.
There are two movies vying to occupy the same space here: a teen comedy about artistic pretension and academic double standards, and a darker, nastier movie about a serial killer.
A low-key satire of the consensual illusion of art world success, Art School Confidential deftly evokes the peculiar, funny-sad heartbreak of the aspiring genius.
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
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May 14, 2006:
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May 07, 2006:
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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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