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Art School Confidential (2006) DVD Review
Art School Confidential (2006) DVD Credits:
Art School Confidential (2006) Directed by:
Terry Zwigoff
Art School Confidential (2006) Written by:
Dan Clowes, Terry Zwigoff
Art School Confidential (2006) Cast:
Jim Broadbent, Ezra Buzzington, Jesse Flanagan, Anjelica Huston, John Malkovich, Max Minghella, Joel Moore, Sophia Myles, Ethan Suplee
Art School Confidential (2006) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
Art School Confidential (2006) DVD Release Date:
9th October 2006
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

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Art School Confidential (2006) Synopsis:

In "Art School Confidential," director Terry Zwigoff returns to a theme from his films "Crumb" and "Ghost World": the isolation of sensitive people whose interests and work are under-appreciated in a vacuous contemporary world. The film is Zwigoff's second adaptation of a comic story by Daniel Clowes, after "Ghost World," for which they shared an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2002. "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.

Art School Confidential (2006) DVD Review:

Most of the humor will be lost on anyone who hasn’t experienced the art scene in any University. Those who have experienced it will find the humor even in the small details of the way that characters dress or their detached view of life. It also happens to be making fun of the only people who will really understand the jokes. It’s a world where normal is weird and everyone is so desperate to be different that their nonconformity ends up being a cliché.

Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) spent his early years of education as an outsider and was mostly just picked on. He is the cliché of the sensitive artist, and he hopes that by going to an art college he will achieve his two goals; becoming a successful artist and finding a girl to love, or at least have sex with. The problem with the first goal arrives as his art teacher (John Malkovich) informs him that only one out of every hundred students will make art a career. The second problem is with the women that attend art school. They are all caricatures of the typical art students. Most are crazy and the others are an emotional wreck. The only girl that fits Jerome’s standards is one that is predictably out of his reach. As if this weren’t enough for the plot to handle, there is also a strangler on the loose in the area.

We don’t witness the death of the first four victims of the strangler, but the fifth is shown in true Zwigoff style. It’s masterful in using music to lighten an otherwise brutal and traditional mystery murder sequence. It is still a stark contrast to the other comedic elements of the film, but it stands out as a great sequence. The murders in general don’t seem to fit with the rest of the film, especially art, but it is fascinating to watch the close of the film bring the two forms in perfect harmony.

Malkovitch is believable as a pathetic failure of an artist who really means well as a professor, but somehow always comes up short of inspirational. He’s wonderfully bland as many professors naturally seem to be; a living version of “those who can’t do…” Equally engaging to watch is Jim Broadbent, who plays a burnt out former art student. He lives in his apartment as a recluse, painting work that nobody care to see as he drinks and loathes the world. At first he is just shocking and vulgar, but interestingly enough by the next time Jerome goes to visit him he begins to make sense and seems to become a mentor to Jerome.

The DVD has a strange assortment of special features, listing deleted scenes, an additional scene, and bloopers with alternate takes as three separate categories. All of this extra footage is scattered about as if making the special features menu look more crowded, because besides these there are only two other additional features. There is a featurette from the film’s premiere at Sundance and a short making of featurette as well.

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Art School Confidential (2006) DVD review written by: Ryan Izay

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