San Francisco director Terry Zwigoff and comic book artist-turned-screenwriter Daniel Clowes follow-up their GHOST WORLD success with a less satisfying collaboration. Selecting the art-school experience as their subject, the pair created a sardonic satire with broad brushstrokes, using a very limited color palette. They paint it black. Very, very black.
ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL makes a strong, cynical statement. Max Minghella infuses Jerome, a gifted and committed young artist, with dreams and sweetness and naiveté. An outsider at his suburban high school, he hopes to find a community of like-minded Picassos at the Strathmore Institute. But, as Jerome’s new buddy (Joel Moore) points out, his fellow art students are walking clichés: the vegan holy man, the boring blowheart, the angry lesbian, the beatnik chick, the drop-out. Much of the faculty fit the description of “old failures who teach only to keep their health insurance.”
These stereotypes offer no surprises or fresh perspectives, and the narrative feels forced by design. Clowes’s plot drives the central question: Whose student work will receive the best survey grade and, consequently, the annual Broadway Bob (Steve Buscemi) show that can launch an emerging artist’s career? Three awkward subplots—a serial killer investigation, the student filmmaking project of Jerome’s obnoxious roommate and the fate of a destitute Strathmore grad (Jim Broadbent)—also coalesce at the climax and make a bold thematic statement. The dark comedy succeeds on an intellectual level rather than satisfying on a dramatic one.
With the exception of Jerome and the model (Sophia Myles) whom he adores, all the characters are stick figures with none of the lovable eccentricities that add dimension to those living in GHOST WORLD. Zwigoff keeps the viewer on the outside, staring at and making judgments about this boorish group and the injustices suffered by the sympathetic protagonist. The film’s tone seethes with anger.
The pretentious Professor Sandiford (John Malkovich) might wrongly describe such simple caricatures as having “a sort of now-ness”—the glowing praise he reserves for the ridiculously childlike artwork of one of his students (Matt Keeslar). Art historian Sophie (Angelica Huston) might add, “What is art? What makes a work of art timeless?”
But the reaction of Jerome—and the viewer—is derision towards the arrogance and phoniness of an art world that rewards high-concept or no-talent work while dismissing deserving efforts. Minghella switches his soft brown eyes into burning embers, as his character grows increasingly disillusioned and becomes as willing as the rest of them to sell his soul for 15 minutes of Warholian fame, money and the adoration of his muse.
It’s no secret that ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL functions as the embittered flipside to GHOST WORLD. If you’re an aspiring artist, prepare to sell-out or slit your wrists now.
Rated R for language including sexual references, nudity and a scene of violence.
1 hour, 42 minutes.
Susan Tavernetti
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