Art School Confidential has a fairly impressive cast, including John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent and Anjelica Huston, and is led by respected director Terry Zwigoff. Like Zwigoff’s previous film Ghost World, this is an adaptation from a comic book by Daniel Clowes (who also wrote the screenplays for both).

At the beginning of this film, the protagonist proclaims that he aspires to be the world’s greatest artist. His ambition is quickly crushed in this pessimistic depiction of life at an Art School. The theme of artistic integrity versus fame and fortune is explored, and the vapidity of the art scene is the backdrop as Jerome and his aspirations rapidly descend into disillusion. Soon Jerome’s disenchantment leads him to forsake his morality for what he desires.

What went wrong with this film was that it was trying to hard to be cool and just ended up as boring. In attempting to be different by presenting a more jaded worldview, and by presumably trying to be ironic, Clowes and Zwigoff forgot about plot and characterisation.

Art School Confidential has various subplots that go nowhere, thinly developed characters who the viewer feels no sympathy for, and basically a series of loosely linked events that substitute a narrative.

There is no real insight into any of the characters or their motivations, and as a result their actions or their plight don’t hold much significance to the viewer. We briefly meet a multitude of supporting actors who play out various stereotypes for a few scenes each, to no real end. The viewer is not really engaged in the story, mainly because it is too hard to follow, as it jumps from one scenario to the next too quickly and without clear rationale.

Max Minghella plays the part of the increasingly morose Jerome convincingly, as do most of the cast with the little they are given to work with. Perhaps if Clowes had taken more time to flesh out his characters and simplify his narrative, this could’ve worked. However, as it is, what was intended to be a witty satire of the art world and its pretensions just comes across as an inane teen movie with an aggressive tone.

At times during this film, I honestly didn’t know whether it was trying to be dramatic or comedic. It felt like they were making it up as they went along. This film is not funny or illuminating; Art School Confidential just appears to be an overly self-conscious and lazy attempt at trying to recreate the misanthropic delight that was Ghost World.

Hmmm: 2/5

This did make me want to see Ghost World again though…

Posted November 22nd, 2007 under Movie Reviews.
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