Art School Confidential: a review

Hollywood Bitchslap ^ | 5/14/06 | William Goss

[Republicanprofessor]

The promotional campaign for 'Art School Confidential' employs the phrase “Just throw it on the wall and see what sticks.” The film adheres fine at first, working best as a collection of caricatures, but the humor eventually dries up and a half-hearted attempt at grander satire causes the second half to peel away, no matter how hard you try to smooth it back down. Jerome (a meek Max Minghella) wants to be the next great artist. As such, he decides to attend the Strathmore Institute, where other creative souls flock in the pursuit of greatness (or success, whichever comes first). His roommates include fashion major Matthew (Nick Swardson, carrying on his tradition of incredibly effeminate roles) and Vince (Ethan Suplee), an aspiring filmmaker whose lately project concerns the incidents on campus concerning a serial strangler. Meanwhile, in the class of Professor Sandiford (John Malkovich, fitting right in), Jerome finds himself guided by major-shifting Bardo (Joel David Moore), competing with creepy new guy Jonah (Matt Keeslar), and head over heels for model Audrey (Sophia Myles). Oh, and Anjelica Huston appears in two scenes as another professor and Steve Buscemi appears in two more as an art dealer, but frankly, the film seems to feature them more out of obligation than necessity.

Initially, the film finds its footing as a farce, lampooning several personalities that even those farthest from a paintbrush can recognize and chuckle at. Several scenes, such as Jerome’s attempts at dating manic-depressive beatnik chicks and the like, work rather well, especially considering that it could just as easily be a Saturday Night Live sketch with just about the same amount of depth. One of the few successful Strathmore students returns to lecture that students about the futility of their education. Great artists are born, not learned; he is one, you are not, and as such, he can afford to be as much of an asshole as he pleases. However, such quirky touches soon run out of steam, and the unfortunate decision is made to put the clumsy Strathmore Strangler subplot front and center, which is the moment the film loses its sense of humor as well as its focus.

Director Terry Zwigoff and writer Daniel Clowes, reuniting five years after Ghost World, initially introduce Jimmy (Jim Broadbent) as an inebriated and bitter alum whose lifestyle of misery and loneliness seems to be an artist’s cruelest fate and strongest foundation, but once the killer strikes again, Jimmy becomes the awkward voice of nihilism, driving Jerome once he discovers that idealism in the art world is irrational. At this point, Art School Confidential becomes a movie of misguided meaning, simultaneously supporting and shooting down its protagonist’s aspirations, robbing him of ambition when he is supposed to be as great as he think he is. The films goes from skewering every pretense of the art world to embracing them, and instead of a sincere portrait of an artist coming to terms with the equally abstract nature of reality as he pursues “that narcotic moment of creative bliss,” it becomes dry when it should become truly dark and limps along as a derivative glimpse into an off-kilter world, good for a few laughs and nothing much else.

In the end, Zwigoff knows what he wants to say, but he misses the big picture, failing to fuse his shifting tones with a more complete theme. The mood becomes bitter, distracted, and rather murky when it would be dark, could be cynical, and should be rewarding, if only for the pessimists and nihilists. However, demanding such a crappy happy ending is asking for a happy ending nonetheless and could be mistaken for compromising one’s artistic integrity for the sake of commercial satisfaction, which the film itself seems to suggest. Not to sound like a snob or anything.

[Republicanprofessor]

The kid wanted to be a successful artist so badly that we was willing to submit to being the strangler without a whimper.

That's what really bothers me. He wasn't anxious to be freed, as he was "innocent," but all the attention "his" art caused him to want to stay in prison as long as possible.

Such lies perpetuated in the name of "art." I can't stand it.

[Ditter]

We are certainly in agreement there! What is your comment on the 'rubber chicken' as 'art' display?

[Republicanprofessor]

I'm getting as sick of all that empty, shocking work as everyone else.

[maine-iac7]

Frazetta

love his stuff - reminds me I have a book of his illustrations around here somewhere - will have to dig it out.

The destruction of art in our country was one of the points of the Communists Party's plan to destroy our society - along with music, education - etc. I'm old enough to remember Khrushchev banging his shoe on the UN podium back in 1960; "We will bury you within 50 years and we will not have to fire a bullet!"

I, also, write - tho' retired great-granny now and mostly just maintain my column (18 years now).

This is one of my silverpoints - I really like the medium:

[maine-iac7]

yep.

But there are still some good museums. One of my favorite art museums, that I use to haunt when I lived in the Berkshires, is the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown.

Went back for a visit a few years ago and was heartened to see that it still is feast for the eyes and the spirit - and so are the grounds!

The best thing about the Guggenheim, to me, is the building -

[woofie]

I think this film had a few good laughs and a lot of wasted potential. Art school is ripe with characters and strange situations but I dont remember a single strangler. The movie did remind me of all those years drawing naked people.

"A naked woman is like an apple" one professor told me. What the hell does that mean?

I have long thought the best art education is one part therapy and two parts benign neglect.

[Darkwolf377]

That is beautiful.

[TradicalRC]

"A naked woman is like an apple" one professor told me. What the hell does that mean?

The desire for forbidden fruit has been the ruin of many.

[Mr. Blonde]

Zwigoff had a lot to live up to in the black comedy department when his last film was Bad Santa. Kind of sad to hear that he didn't make it.

[Guenevere]

There are still some excellent art schools...my son graduated from one 5 years ago and is doing quite well as a computer animator.

His school had/has a good foundational/basics class, and it has held him well with job interviews and positions.

Also, he found his own recognizable style, without resorting to weird stuff.

[turbocat]

Where did he go to school. My teenager is quite adept at that stuff, and would love to know a recommendation.

[Guenevere]

you have mail

[Sam Cree]

The art schools that I've taken classes at, UM, and more recently, MDC (which does the best job, having a prof who is actually series about it) and FIU offer, but don't teach the basics, and I do believe that to be fairly typical, from conversations with others, including even others from foreign countries at Wetcanvas. I'm sure there are exceptions, though, after all, there are people out there who clearly have mastered them.

The schools whose names I mentioned actually do offer, and even require as prerquisites, the basic courses, they do have classes in basic drawing, basic painting, figure drawing from life, etc. It's just that not very much is taught in those courses, in part because the professors themselves don't have the skills, in part I suppose because skills are not highly valued by university art departments. I told the figure drawing prof at FIU a couple years ago that my goal was to draw accurately, to which he philosophically rather than practically replied, "What is accuracy?" The fact is that there are specific techniques for acheiving accuracy, but you weren't going to learn them there, and probably not in most university level drawing classes. And of course, learning them isn't enough in itself, you have to practice them alot to really understand them, something specifically not encouraged. I'm forgetting that many years ago I took a few art classes at UNC where I was informed that students working in realism were not normally considered.

I guess that this attitude began with the rebellion against the academy and found new life with the art world's fixation on leftist politics. But as I always say, the goal of artists ought to be to create something timeless rather than something cutting edge.

One thing that I found interesting is that regarding the classes I took at the three institutions, MDC, FIU and UM, the less prestigious that school, the better the art that was being produced. MDC, the community college, had younger kids, and they were making strikingly better art than the kids at the other 2 schools. There were some very young kids there with some real talent - something that may very well be repressed once they enroll in "real" art schools.

But in sum, it is still a strange thing that the modern "academy" has made such a point of abandoning skill, which in my mind is one of the basic qualities of art.

[Sam Cree]

I also have the idea that most of the students who sign up as art majors aren't too serious about the subject in the first place, the field probably seems to them more like something fun and interesting, a way to get through college. Not having to learn real skills is kind of a plus for them, they get to avoid the truly hard and time consuming work of actually mastering those skills.

OTOH, those students who really have a fire burning in them get screwed, there's not too much there for them, and excellence is discouraged anyway.

In the "hard" fields like engineering, pre med, chemistry, etc. students have to actually master the subject. My opinion is that while art is certainly subjective and interpretive, it too has techniques to master that are every bit as "hard" as those pertaining to the sciences. Or to music, for that matter.

[SoCal Pubbie]

"my son graduated from one 5 years ago and is doing quite well as a computer animator."

Well, there you go. A lot of excellent art is done in the fields of animation, illustration, graphic, commercial sculpture, and industrial design. I am the latter, and have been doing it professionally for a quarter of a century now. I went to art school a long time ago but we had to learn perspective, rendering, color theory, art history, and a whole lot of stuff that wasn't just sticks and rubber chickens.