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Art School Confidential

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Art School Confidential (2006)

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Reviews Counted:131

Fresh:47

Rotten:84

Average Rating:5.4/10

Consensus: Art School's misanthropy is too sour, its targets too flat and cliched, and Clowes and Zwigoff stumble when trying to build a story around the premise.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for language including sexual references, nudity and a scene of violence.

Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins

Genre: Comedies

Theatrical Release:May 5, 2006 Limited

Box Office: $3,174,973

Synopsis: "Art School Confidential" follows a talented young artist Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) as he escapes from high school to a tiny East Coast art school. Here the boyish freshman's ambition is to... "Art School Confidential" follows a talented young artist Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) as he escapes from high school to a tiny East Coast art school. Here the boyish freshman's ambition is to become the world's greatest artist, like his hero Picasso. Unfortunately, the beauty and craft of Jerome's portraiture are not appreciated in an anything-goes art class that he finds bewildering and bogus. Neither his harsh judgments of his classmates' efforts or his later attempts to create pseudo-art of his own win him any admirers. But Jerome does attract the attentions of his dream girl — the stunning and sophisticated Audrey (Sophia Myles) — an artist's model and daughter of a celebrated artist. Rejecting the affectations of the local art scene, Audrey is drawn to Jerome's sincerity. When Audrey shifts her attentions to Jonah (Matt Keeslar), a hunky painter who becomes the school's latest art star, Jerome is heartbroken. Desperate, he concocts a risky plan to make a name for himself and win her back. Filling out Jerome's world are a host of offbeat characters, including: a quirky art teacher (John Malkovich) who takes an extra-curricular interest in Jerome; a failed artist (Jim Broadbent), drowning in alcohol and self-pity; a regal art history professor (Anjelica Huston) Jerome tries to influence; a coffee shop owner-cum-art impresario (Steve Buscemi) swelling with self-importance; a worldly classmate (Joel David Moore), who introduces Jerome in the intricate mores of campus life; and Jerome's filmmaker roommate (Ethan Suplee), exploding with energy to create a cinematic masterpiece. United Artists and Sony Pictures Classics present Terry Zwigoff's "Art School Confidential," starring Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Matt Keeslar, Steve Buscemi and Anjelica Huston. The film is produced by Lianne Halfon, John Malkovich and Russell Smith, partners in the production company Mr. Mudd, which also produced "Ghost World." Based on Daniel Clowes' short comic story of the same name, "Art School Confidential" is directed by Zwigoff from a screenplay by Clowes. --© Sony Pictures Classics [More]

Starring: Max Minghella, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Ezra Buzzington

Starring: Max Minghella, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Ezra Buzzington, Sophia Myles, Matt Keeslar, Anjelica Huston, Steve Buscemi, Adam Scott, Nick Swardson, Paul Collins, Roxanne Hart

Director: Terry Zwigoff

Director: Terry Zwigoff
Screenwriter: Daniel Clowes
Producer: Russell Smith, Daniel Clowes
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

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Release:

Oct 10, 2006

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Reviews for Art School Confidential

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z)
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One half of a funny movie.

Full Review Source: Denton Record Chronicle (TX) | comment Comment
05/14/06
Boo Allen
Boo Allen
Denton Record Chronicle (TX)

Their humor comes not from a need to be loved or a need to win awards, but rather straight from an acute awareness of the world's follies.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
05/12/06
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

(Director Terry) Zwigoff paints it all with broad strokes and bright colors, the easier to transform it into a snarky cartoon.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
05/11/06
Sean Axmaker
Sean Axmaker
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Underdeveloped and tedious, "Art School Confidential" left me irritated and annoyed.

Full Review Source: Sympatico.ca | comment Comment
05/15/06
Angela Baldassarre
Angela Baldassarre
Sympatico.ca

Suffers from snail-like pacing, an underwhelming central character and the "shooting fish in a barrel" syndrome: The film's targets are all too obvious.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
03/01/07
Lewis Beale
Lewis Beale
Film Journal International

...a sort of John Hughes revamp of Fritz Lang's 'Scarlet Street' (another film in which sexual desire leads a struggling painter down a path of death and stolen artistic identity).

Full Review Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) | comment Comment
05/16/06
John Beifuss
John Beifuss
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

Feels forced and gimmicky.

Full Review Source: Las Vegas Weekly | comment Comment
05/11/06
Josh Bell
Josh Bell
Las Vegas Weekly

Art School Confidential shows the kind of backbone needed by limp parodies like Thank You for Smoking and American Dreamz.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
05/03/06
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

There are two movies vying to occupy the same space here: a teen comedy about artistic pretension and academic double standards, and a darker, nastier movie about a serial killer.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
05/05/06
Jami Bernard
Jami Bernard
New York Daily News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Zwigoff's angry exposé of this intense, tiny subculture isn't fair to anyone in the art world, but if you can stomach the overstatement, it's often scathingly funny. And it's sometimes scathingly smart.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
05/12/06
Amy Biancolli
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

There's not a single person to like in Art School Confidential, a crucial mistake in a movie filled with mean, shallow and self-absorbed characters.

Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
05/12/06
Michael Booth
Michael Booth
Denver Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Starts out as a great movie that eventually devolves into a pretty good one.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
05/10/06
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

A comedy about a young man's wild quest to become the greatest artist in the 21st century.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
05/04/06
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

An admittedly amusing, completely miserable picture filled with too-easy yuks that make you feel cheap and dirty the second you're done chuckling.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Weekly | comment Comment
05/09/06
Sean Burns
Sean Burns
Philadelphia Weekly

It becomes the sort of thing Zwigoff usually holds in contempt, and how depressing is that?

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
05/12/06
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Despite running out of juice in its last half-hour, Art School Confidential has enough solid laughs and insider jokes to become a cult perennial.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
05/12/06
Robert W. Butler
Robert W. Butler
Kansas City Star

Rather than observing the intimate details that make an Art School project special, the filmmakers opt to focus on Art School partying (i.e., drinking and vomiting) instead.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
06/03/06
David N. Butterworth
David N. Butterworth
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Art School likely will entertain a sophomoric audience and etch some winning college-kid figures, but art house audiences will be disappointed by its paint-by-numbers storytelling.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
01/26/06
Duane Byrge
Duane Byrge
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It’s a look at art school life. It’s a love story. It’s a coming of age tale. It’s a serial killer murder mystery. None of these themes fit together and it makes for a really disjointed, confusing watch.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
01/30/06
Eric Campos
Eric Campos
Film Threat

Zwigoff too often picks up his putty knife when he should be running with scissors...doesn't quite add up to the sum of its parts, but some of the parts are pretty amusing all the same.

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
05/05/06
Peter Canavese
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews
 
 
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Latest News for Art School Confidential

September 14, 2007: Zwigoff, Clowes to Assemble $40,000 Man
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