Director Terry Zwigoff has yet to have a misfire. His films deal with similar themes and Art School Confidential has the directors fingerprints. Zwigoff brought us Crumb, Ghost World and Bad Santa and now he brings us a story about a teenager with an obsession for art. One can call Art School Confidential a satirical comedy because its witty, clever and always unpredictable. Zwigoff has great material to work with here and this film has such interesting dialogue that there is no way one can claim this dull.
From the cast the only truly well known actors are John Malkovich and Steve Buscemi. The former has more screentime playing the teacher Professor Sandiford for the art class. Jerome, the main character who is played by Max Minghella joins the art class and plans to become the next Picasso. He develops frustrations when feedback for his paintings are negative while they were clearly great paintings, but maybe not too original. Jerome must remember that these are only a few opinions, but the vast majority didn't like his paintings.
It could be because of jealousy or that an individual did find them just average. However, they were solid paintings, but others had more originality. The question that Art School Confidential brings up is what is art? Art can be many things to many people, but what some of the classmates do is ridiculous. Imagine crumbled paper glued to a board as art. This is where some of the comedy for this film comes in because it is absurd. While Jerome is not being accepted as a great painter he of course begins to doubt himself and his characters transforms over the films running time.
Art School Confidential displays not only art, but also film. It basically combines the different forms of expression and how it can take practice and patience to get where you want to be. It lays this all out for us while being incredibly sarcastic, much like Ghost World was. For the most part Zwigoff doesn't hold anything back, he is the type of director that throws it in your face and its up to you to realize it. It doesn't take many locations either for this film and it works because of the enjoyable characters and simply fantastic dialogue.
This film has full frontal nudity from both male and female. This happens when the students have to paint them nude. When it comes time to paint the female, the males are more excited of course and this begins a liking to the girl for Jerome. The female is played by Sophia Myles who's named Audrey. Myles shares the same love for art, but for Jerome its his life. We also experience the obsession for film with another character. Art School Confidential captures the different arts in the entertainment industry rather well.
Its the dialogue though in this film above all else that drives it right through without a problem. That's not to say that this film doesn't have flaws because it does, but one can overlook the minor flaws. It has plenty of original moments that triggers the mind, it very much plays well with different personalities. Beyond that, Art School Confidential deals with sexuality, mysteries and the struggles for young people in making their dream come true. One can always make it happen with enough passion for it and never giving up. This film has messages all throughout it and all while being comedic, entertaining and done with solid filmmaking.
The ending for Art School Confidential can be argued that it seemed out of place. However, its certainly unexpected and its final action puts everything together as he accomplishes one of his two goals. It also leaves it open for imagination of what happens next. Zwigoff has made this film with a pace that never loses one interest and with surprising moments. Art School Confidential places story and dialogue first and both the former and the latter are treats to behold. This film is not on the caliber of Ghost World, but Zwigoff has still succeeded in delivering a thought provoking motion picture.
