Art School Confidential (2006)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Terry Zwigoff

Writers (WGA):

Daniel Clowes (screenplay)
Daniel Clowes (comic story)

Release Date:

10 November 2006 (Poland)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Who said anything about talent?

Plot:

Starting from childhood attempts at illustration, the protagonist pursues his true obsession to art school. But as he learns how the art world really works, he finds that he must adapt his vision to the reality that confronts him.

Plot Keywords:

Drawing | Strangler | New York City | Art School | Dinner Scene

Cast

Max Minghella	...	Jerome
Sophia Myles	...	Audrey
John Malkovich	...	Professor Sandiford
Jim Broadbent	...	Jimmy
Matt Keeslar	...	Jonah
Ethan Suplee	...	Vince
Joel Moore	...	Bardo (as Joel David Moore)
Nick Swardson	...	Matthew
Anjelica Huston	...	Art History Teacher
Adam Scott	...	Marvin Bushmiller
Jack Ong	...	Professor Okamura
Scoot McNairy	...	Army-Jacket
Jeremy Guskin	...	Eno
Monika Ramnath	...	Flower
Isaac Laskin	...	Kiss-Ass

MPAA:

Rated R for language including sexual references, nudity and a scene of violence.

Runtime:

USA:102 min | 102 min (Sundance Film Festival) | Argentina:102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:14A (Ontario) | Singapore:M18 | Argentina:16 | USA:R (certificate #41649) | Australia:MA | Germany:12 | New Zealand:R16 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Communications Building, Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

United Artists

Trivia:

During the Halloween party sequence, one of the guests is dressed just like Enid (Thora Birch) from Ghost World (2001), also directed by Terry Zwigoff.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Jerome's roommate, the fashion designer, is sewing on his machine, it wasn't threaded correctly. The spool was on the bobbin loader, not the spool pin where it should be.

Quotes:

Vince: Man, if she were my girlfriend, I'd be pounding that night and day.

Movie Connections:

References "The Munsters" (1964)

Soundtrack:

Hungarian Dance No. 5

A Twist of Lime with a Crabapple on Top

The beginning of this movie was hilarious. Jerome goes to art school and meets zany characters, including his gay roommate, his wannabe filmmaker roommate, and his art teacher (played by John Malkovich). The dialogue was witty. The audience loved the satire of modern art, because we all know how ridiculous modern art can be yet we must be polite and insightful when looking at it. Everyone could relate to the perverted college humor. Unfortunately, all this silliness ended. Right in the middle, the movie took a turn of tone and with it took the refreshingly simple but fun plot.

Art School Confidential suddenly became serious about its characters, including the mysterious strangler. The decision to transform the movie into a serious mystery was it's major flaw. With this move, the writers felt they had to incorporate a more confusing plot to achieve a mysterious tone. By the end, the initial idea of simply amusing the audience was lost because of the poorly-crafted mystery, leaving the audience disappointed.

Why do filmmakers do this? They think because we have paid to see an indie movie, we want an obscure plot twist topped off with an unresolved ending. It's like having ice cream, fun and simple, then someone comes over and adds a twist of lime and tops it off with crab apples! Obscure, but no fun because it tastes weird and you were content with the ice cream by itself. I recommend the first hour of this movie.