ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL
An "A" for the "Art" of a Natural Born Killer?
PopcornReel.com Movie Review: "Art School Confidential"
By Omar P.L. Moore/May 11, 2006
Helping hand: Sandiford (John Malkovich) plays
politics in the art of go along to get along with student Jerome (Max Minghella)
in Terry Zwigoff's "Art School Confidential" (Photo: Sony Classics)
Terry Zwigoff, director of the scathingly hilarious "Bad Santa" and the Oscar-nominated "Ghost World" turns his focus to the inner workings of the art world in his latest, "Art School Confidential". He captures the goings-on at the fictional Strathmore School in New York City, where students are going in search of becoming great artists. One, Jerome (Max Minghella) has declared from since the time he was being bullied at an early age, that he dreamed of being "the greatest artist of the twentieth century." Jerome parodies Picasso at age ten, declaring that though he's short and bald he's able to have sex with any woman that he feels like. Dialogue like this, and words much more raunchy and sexually charged, permeate Mr. Zwigoff's film.
Sandiford, an over-the-hill has-been of artist who is now a
professor at Strathmore, bellows to his new student class that only one of a
hundred of them will ever become artists. Undeterred, Sandy's subjects
press on with the tasks of drawing nude men and women, in one hilarious episode
following a time out from painting. Such touches and affectations are rife
in "Art School Confidential", a rip-roaring, gleefully politically incorrect
comedy that is filled with cynicism, symbolism and satire. Some of the
hilarity comes from the stereotypes of the students that Bardo (Joel David
Moore) throws at Jonah during his first day at the small art school. Jonah
soon finds that he is in some unique company when at the dorm in which he
resides as he shares the dorm with an amped-up whatever-it-takes filmmaker (a
very funny Ethan Suplee) and a man who is gay but temporarily pretends otherwise
(Nick Swardson).
Soon, Jonah, who has yet to engage in carnal knowledge with a woman, pines for
the heart and love of his own Mona Lisa, the nude model Audrey (Sylvia Myles)
whom he draws longingly and passionately when he captures her for the first
time. Audrey is so impressed that she is mesmerized for a second during a
break from sketching. Meanwhile, a strangler has been on the prowl on the
art campus, and women are being killed with a rope around the neck. All of
this seems to concern only Mr. Suplee's character Vince, who decides to turn his
attention to making a film about the violence on campus. If that isn't
enough, there is Jimmy, a burnt-out artist from yesteryear who slumbers in a
dark, dank New York City apartment, constantly drinking and barking obscenities
and inquiring about oral sex. There is also a student Jonah (Matt Keeslar)
who stands out for both his bulk and height, whom competes with Jerome for the
affections of Audrey.
There's a lot going on in "Art School Confidential" and most of it is very funny. Sometimes you get the feeling that you should not be laughing at some of what you see and hear, but because it is a clear parody and satire of the art world and its politics -- sexual and otherwise -- a hearty laugh is irresistible. The film works best as a series of comedy mini-sketches (almost literally like art sketches in a way as well) rather than a film as a whole. Some of the episodes have a Monty Python-like quality to them because some of what the actors do is quite bawdy and unusual. The plot is muddled, particularly the sub-plot about a student who goes undercover and the campus strangler (does that figure have to do with the hatred of women, or the lack of power that the strangler may feel in relation to them?) None of this is clear. Nor is the role of Anjelica Huston as an art history professor from whom Jerome seeks advice. Ms. Huston is not miscast, but just seems out of place here, even though her acting is fine enough for the brief screen time she enjoys.
The strongest things about "Art School Confidential" is its
cast of characters, whom are all very entertaining in their own right.
This is true for all of them including most especially Jimmy, played with
scene-stealing zeal by the British actor and Oscar-winner Jim Broadbent.
He is unrecognizable here, and it took this critic two viewings of the film to
realize that Mr. Broadbent inhabited the role of the drunken artist who has
fallen on hard times. That's a testament to his terrific acting, as well
as a strong script that has a solid ear for dialogue. Writer Daniel Clowes
adapted his own comic story and it has come sharply alive on the big screen.
Finally, as Jonah, Max Minghella who played characters in the 2005 films "Bee
Season" and "Syriana", gets to show a tad bit more range here, although it is
the cinematography of Jamie Anderson that does the bushy eye-browed Mr.
Minghella the greatest favors, delivering a flicker of mystery and ambiguity in
the way the camera shoots his profile, as if studying a painting of its own.
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