Posted: 05/29/2006

Art School Confidential

(2006)

by Alan Rode

“Just remember, only 1 in 100 of you will ever make a living in art.”

Professor Sandiford’s (John Malkovich) reinforcement of professional disappointment to his students is emblematic of the relentless skewering delivered to the self-important art school milieu in director Terry Swigoff’s “Art School Confidential”.

The intellectual dishonesty of academia in perpetuating supercilious phoniness to a classroom of equally vapid art students is the source of considerable, biting humor in Daniel Clowes’ screenplay.

The picture opens in an uproarious fashion. A talented, insecure nerd, Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) enrolls in a pretentious Manhattan art school- i.e. Pratt Institute- where every character is a perfect cliché. His dorm companions are atypical: a yammering Stegosaurus of a film student (the wonderful Ethan Suplee), a gay fashion designer major (Adam Scott) who is seemingly the only person on Earth who thinks he is still in the closet and a wily cynic (Joel Moore) who starts over every semester.

The laughs come in a series of rapier-like jabs reminiscent of the old Rowan & Martin television program. Showcased are a varied ensemble of art school burn-out cases, airhead, nympho, suck up art students and a host of related oddballs. One brief scene of a successful artist alumnus directing his profane, over-the-top arrogance towards the student body and school dean during an assembly caused the entire theatre to erupt in raucous laughter. The top-notch cast, enlivened by a nice mix of vets including Anjelica Huston, Steve Buscemi and Richard Bakalyan, perfectly captures the humorous pseudo-intellectual bankruptcy of the artistic-academia environment.

Matters bog down when the film moves into the complex matter of an overriding story. Platz’s frustration over his artistic ambition is jumbled up with his unrequited obsession for art model Sophia Myles who divides her time with another student. Folding this storyline into an ongoing mystery of a campus serial killer and the tormented wisdom from a broken down, drunken artist (Jim Broadbent in a memorable turn) simply doesn’t work.

The lack of character development is the Achilles heel of “Art School Confidential”. Minghella and Myles are fine young actors, but they can’t manufacture the needed heft of characterization that isn’t in the screenplay.

Terry Swigoff and screenwriter Clowes’ shared comic book legacy is the source of both the strength and weakness of this amusing, quirky film.

One has to admire the vigor of integrity that Terry Swigoff brings to his filmmaking. After scoring an improbable hit with “Crumb” (1994) a startlingly brilliant documentary on the underground cartoonist, he turned down several silver platter opportunities to go ‘Hollywood’. Instead, Swigoff stuck to his guns and made the darkly exceptional “Ghost World” (2001) with Clowes and “Bad Santa” (2003).

The virtues of this picture certainly outweigh any limitations. In a season of long, boring epics starring overturning ocean liners, the Mona Lisa and Tom Cruise, “Art School Confidential” is a funny, enjoyable pleasure. Just like reading a comic book.

Alan Rode is an L.A. based writer and a founding member of The Film Noir Foundation.

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