MOVIE REVIEWS
Art School Confidential
Nathan Lim
Terry Zwigoff is a freak, which is why his films are so eerily great. The cult classic documentary Crumb, the coming-of-age Ghost World, and the hysterical Bad Santa are all from the mind of this enigmatic weirdo. There’s an infamous story that he once kept a gun under his pillow, and when the eccentric illustrator Harry Crumb initially refused to do the documentary, Zwigoff threatened to shoot himself in the head. The rest is of course history.
So the latest dark comedy from Zwigoff is Art School Confidential, a satirical look at the world of art school. Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) has been a loser all his adolescent life. The guys bully him and the girls ignore him. So one day, he decides that he’s going to stick it to all the people who have wronged him and become THE GREATEST ARTIST OF THE 21st century. In a hilarious scene, a young Jerome, dressed as Pablo Picasso, says to the class, “Even though I’m super short and bald, I am able have sex with any beautiful woman I want, just because I’m so great.”
Six years later, Jerome is one step closer to achieving his ultimate goal. He enrolls at the Strathmore Institute, one of the nation’s finest art schools. In his Drawing & Painting class, Professor Sandiford (John Malkovich) tells his eager students, “Only one out of one hundred of you will make a living as an artist.” But Jerome must continue to pursue his passion because he’s wildly in love with Audrey Baumgarten (Sophia Myles), a fledgling model. And I can’t blame him because she is indeed super hot! Jonah (Matt Kesler) is the perfect antagonist for the bitter Jerome, who already doesn’t need life to beat him down any more. Jonah is tall, blond, handsome, and has an impeccable body; any woman would throw themselves at his feet; and his sophomoric artworks (according to Jerome) are the most lauded at Strathmore.
The stock characters are simply off-the-wall. I love Jimmy (Jim Broadbent), a rundown, bitter artist who lives in a shitty apartment and drinks vodka all day; Joel Moore is great as Bardo, the guy who knows the ins and outs of Strathmore; Vince (Ethan Suplee) is a film student who is obsessed with making a film about the serial murderer who has been plaguing the campus.
Art School Confidential received mixed reviews. I can see why. The big reveal in the third act is totally ridiculous. The dark humor may go over a lot people’s heads as too crude or offensive. But I enjoyed this film because as a film school dropout, I can attest to the hypocrisy, the absurdity, and the painful reality of the typical art conservatory that Zwigoff sheds light on in this movie. There’s a scene in which the arrogant Mr. Bushmiller, an established artist and a Strathmore alumnus, speaks before the nascent artists. After a few irrelevant questions, he scoffs at the students by saying, “Look! There’s only one question you really want to ask! You want to know what it takes to turn you into me!” And then he adds, “There’s nothing to learn here! You’re wasting your time! Just go home!” I couldn’t agree more.
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