Art School Confidential: Black comedy. Starring Max Minghella, Ethan
Suplee, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich and Jim Broadbent. Directed by Terry
Zwigoff. (R. 102 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)
A famous graduate of
Strathmore — a snooty East Coast academy ridiculed in top dog Terry
Zwigoff's wildly uneven "Art School Confidential" — returns to campus to
pontificate under the bearing of answering questions. A student asks by reason of advice,
and the hotshot drolly replies that they're all wasting their time in school
and would be better improbable if they went accessible.
His point is continually reinforced in Daniel Clowes' overstuffed script.
Art schools are an easy target because of their perceived pretentiousness. "Six
Feet Under" made mincemeat of them in episodes where Claire is taught to be a
quote, unquote artist. But Clowes, who attended the Pratt Institute, brings a
special insider's knowledge to his barbs, which are by far the funniest part of
the movie.
It's worth seeing just for John Malkovich's portrayal of an instructor
who's entirely too preoccupied with his failed career as a painter of triangles
to pay much attention to his students. When they notice his virtually identical
artwork — it would be hard to miss since it's the only thing hanging on his
walls — he quickly informs them that he was one of the first to do
triangles. Malkovich's deadpan reading of the line underscores its absurdity.
Nobody is better at playing pomposity. Jim Broadbent has some marvelously loopy
moments as a Strathmore grad whose disdain for the place really comes out while
swigging 80-proof schnapps.
"Art School Confidential" exudes confidence as long as it is satirizing a
questionable, at least according to Clowes, institution of higher learning. But
the film loses its way with multiple subplots, becoming a hodgepodge that isn't
particularly hard to follow, but, far worse, provides no compelling reason to
bother.
Zwigoff and Clowes, who both live in the Bay Area, last collaborated on
the incandescent "Ghost World" (for which they were nominated for a
screenwriting Oscar). Perhaps anything they followed it with would have seemed
disappointing in comparison.
But at times their new movie looks like the work of amateurs. It has a
dismaying flatness, like those one-dimensional Madonnas from the Byzantine
period before artists discovered perspective. "Art School Confidential" could
only have benefited from the filmmakers stepping back and getting some
perspective on what they hoped to achieve.
Maybe they would have realized that focusing on Strathmore student Jerome
Platz (Max Minghella) was a mistake since he's the least interesting in a
cavalcade of characters. A Picasso wannabe from the suburbs, Jerome eagerly
enrolls in the school only to have his obvious talent — he's the only one in
the class producing anything recognizable as art — not merely overlooked,
but mocked. He's also thwarted in his other ambition: to make his first sexual
conquest. Jerome is picky, which explains why he's still a virgin. A nude model
(Sophia Myles, looking equally lovely in and out of clothes), however, meets
his high standards.
Minghella was passable in supporting roles in "Syriana" and "Bee Season,"
but isn't strong enough yet to be cast as the lead. Jerome's supposed arrogance
is completely lost in his bland performance. Myles blows Minghella off the
screen. They're the most physically mismatched couple since Leonardo DiCaprio
and Kate Winslet met on the Titanic.
Minghella also gets lost in scenes with the inherently funny Ethan Suplee
("My Name is Earl") as Jerome's blowhard roommate. A guerrilla filmmaker, he's
shooting what he thinks will be a masterpiece based on a series of brutal
unsolved murders in the area. Did I mention that "Art School Confidential"
suffers from a surfeit of plots?
The one about a serial killer on the loose at least has a payoff. It
leads, however circuitously, to an ending that makes a mockery not just of art
school but of the entire art world as well.
– Advisory: This film contains nudity, sexual content and mildly violent
scenes.