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Art School Confidential

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Art School Confidential (2006)

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Reviews Counted:32

Fresh:14

Rotten:18

Average Rating:5.5/10

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 date)
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Curiously, this relentlessly cynical tone turns out sounding refreshingly original compared to the usual pieties in the genre.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
07/12/06
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
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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.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
05/12/06
Ruthe Stein
Ruthe Stein
San Francisco Chronicle
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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
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What keeps the film from being altogether snide and smug are the well-intentioned performances.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
05/12/06
Terry Lawson
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press
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By the end, it feels as if Zwigoff and Clowes skimmed through a sketchbook without figuring out how to make a fully realized painting, a task that might have mattered less had the movie been either thematically more ambitious or more consistently funny.

Full Review Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News | comment Comment
05/12/06
Robert Denerstein
Robert Denerstein
Denver Rocky Mountain News
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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
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Simply runs out of things to do once it establishes its ground rules of defining stereotypes and mocking pretension.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
05/12/06
Chris Vognar
Chris Vognar
Dallas Morning News
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There is something in the Zwigoffian universe that values such characters [as Jimmy]; having abandoned all illusions, they offer the possibility of truth. I also much enjoyed Broadway Bob.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
05/12/06
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
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Even if one disagrees with some of its points, as I do, it offers plenty to mull over.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
05/12/06
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
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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
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Enjoyable and reprises the same dyspeptic attitude that infused Ghost World, but ultimately it lacks its predecessor's originality and humanity.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
05/11/06
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
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It's pleasant enough, features fine acting in smaller parts, rises occasionally to laughs or plot, but its ambitions and its accomplishments are modest.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
05/11/06
Richard Nilsen
Richard Nilsen
Arizona Republic
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Against this atmospheric background the characters have the depth of stick figures.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
05/11/06
Carrie Rickey
Carrie Rickey
Philadelphia Inquirer
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Proposes to paint a black comedy, but instead has the outsize ears and lopsided, leering grin of bad caricature.

Full Review Source: San Jose Mercury News | comment Comment
05/11/06
Bruce Newman
Bruce Newman
San Jose Mercury News
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It's a ruckus, veering from one picaresque episode to the next in its eagerness to debunk Hollywood clichés and art world stereotypes, but I prefer untidy novelty to paint-by-numbers storytelling any day.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
05/11/06
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Risks more highs and lows than the plaintive, even-toned Ghost World. But both, improbably, have made themselves more or less at home on screen.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
05/11/06
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune
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It's often as naive as it is knowing and can feel as unfocused and sketchy as a film one of Strathmore's students might make.

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
05/11/06
Steve Murray
Steve Murray
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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In handing such a major role to such an untested actor (he's the son of film director Anthony Minghella), Zwigoff takes a risk that ultimately doesn't pay off.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
05/05/06
Peter Howell
Peter Howell
Toronto Star
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Every teacher is a burn-out, every student is a fraud and experimental artists are the worst burn-outs and frauds of all.

Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
05/05/06
Stephen Whitty
Stephen Whitty
Newark Star-Ledger
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Jerome eventually learns that talent has nothing to do with the success he craves - and, sadly, talented filmmakers and actors don't add up to much in Art School Confidential.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
05/05/06
Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
New York Post
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Latest News for Art School Confidential

September 14, 2007: Zwigoff, Clowes to Assemble $40,000 Man
The creative duo responsible for Ghost World and Art School Confidential has found its next project. More...

August 27, 2007: Video Exclusive: Sophia Myles talks Hallam Foe with RT
We chat to the supremely lovely British actress about her latest role in David Mackenzie's new film. More...

May 14, 2006: Box Office Wrapup: "Mission: Impossible 3" Beats "Poseidon" to Remain at #1
Tom Cruise's spy sequel Mission: Impossible III remained the most popular film in North America for the second straight weekend while the big-budget disaster film Poseidon... More...

May 07, 2006: Box Office Wrapup: "Mission: Impossible III" Big, But Not Huge at #1
Tom Cruise climbed into his usual number one spot at the box office with his heavily-hyped spy sequel Mission: Impossible III, however ticket sales fell below most industry... More...

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