I watched Art School Confidential eagerly, pulled from scene to scene by the suspense. And what talent! Director Terry Zwighoff (Ghost World; Crumb) and writer Daniel Clowes, with an innocent lead by Max Minghella (Bee Season), and a perfectly beautiful, remote muse by Sophia Myles (Tristan + Isolde), a classically incompetent art teacher by John Malkovich, and the list goes on.
Yet when the movie finished, I didn’t like it. Why? Because there was no payoff to all the suspense. Suspense? What suspense? you ask. It is an intellectual suspense. The plot, stated simply, is that an innocent, talented, virginal young man goes to art school, and learns something. What will he learn? He learns two things, which are the themes of the movie. First, to be successful in the art world, talent is far less important than sucking up to the right people. Supporting this theme is the recurring critique of student art. It shows that no work of art is any better than any other work. Second, all people are scum, and hopefully a plague will wipe humanity off the face of the earth—except maybe for him and the girl he idolizes.
Unfortunately, the film does not support either theme. It tantalizingly raises the questions and then fails to provide any original, thought-provoking, or in-depth answers. Concerning the first theme, the comments on the paintings are so stereotypical and so jejune that we learn nothing about what makes good art. Concerning the second theme, we learn that people are scum from the rantings of a dyspeptic, alcoholic artist (played brilliantly by Jim Broadbent), but we don’t learn why he came to that conclusion and we don’t see it in the world around the art school. Although the students are stereotypical, troubled, and pretentious, they don’t deserve to die horrible deaths.
And then there’s the serial killer strangling people around the campus. Enough already! What do we get for watching this sour, dystopian stuff. Not laughs, that’s for sure. Not interesting characters who we can empathize with, for most of the characters are stereotypes. And not any insights into art.
posted on Friday, March 14, 2008 1:16 PM by JimBell