wolfgirlriderok As an art student, I hated this film. It's just garbage.Absolutely full to the brim of clichés that on the surface ring true (stoners, goths, hippies, queer folk, hardcore feminists all make appearances in art school) but these characters are pure 2D cardboard cut out 'characters' only included so the audience can laugh at them.Speaking as a representational artist, I hate that this heavily biased toward the idea that representational art is superior to abstract art. It wreaks of immaturity and not actually understanding the purpose of it.Forced romance, terribly unlikable characters with unbelievable lines that are delivered terribly.

tieman64 Terry Zwigoff's films often revolve around artists. Consider "Louie Bluie", which dealt with country blues musician Howard Armstrong, or "Crumb", a macabre film produced by David Lynch which dealt with, amongst other things, the life of Robert Crub, a dysfunctional artist and illustrator who turns to art as a means of escaping emotional and physical abuse. Years later Zwigoff would direct "Ghost World", in which a young woman struggles to become an artist in a world which demands pragmatism and conformity. Problem is, our hero artist, despite being well-meaning and beautifully idealistic, is as vapid and smug as those she defines herself against.So Zwigoff's films increasingly shatter various romantic myths associated with "the artist". This is seen most clearly in "Art School Confidential", the tale of Jerome, a squeaky-clean young artist whose work demonstrates impeccable (if second-hand) technique, but is nevertheless perceived as being devoid of personality, originality and content. Indeed, Jerome's art seems personal only when he is fawning over and sketching a young woman whom he is infatuated with.In an attempt to win accolades, Jerome thus steals the "deep work" of an ostracised, morbid and hugely tortured painter (this painter's morbid art is the result of him being ignored for decades by audiences). But still Jerome and his stolen art are ignored. The public, the film goes on to say, appreciates art only insofar as there is some consistently between how the work is perceived and how the artist as a public persona is perceived. Meanwhile, a talentless cop pretends to be a painter and wins accolades for his simple paintings. The audience loves this connect between naive paintings and a naive painter. The public wants authenticity, a lack of pretence, truth...but also sensationalism. When Jerome poses as a mass murderer his stolen paintings suddenly make him an international superstar. In other words, the worth of his paintings only went up when extrinsic factors came into play: the belief that Jerome had hidden, secret, dark depths. More so than other Zwigoff films, "Art School Confidential" brims with anger. This is Zwigoff moving into bitter, Todd Solondz territory. It's a film about an art world which is deeply competitive, in which sensationalism has superseded art, in which what constitutes "good art" or "any art" is intangible and fickle and in which sham and sincerity are hard to gauge. Zwigoff is obsessed with the relationship art has to its creators, consumers and critics, but views all three with a certain amount of scorn. Critics fail to see, consumers fawn over celebrity and luridness and creators are driven by competitiveness, commerce, bitterness, ego and a pathological urge to connect back to or vengefully get back at society; to persecute others. In addition to this, all three groups fail to healthily separate artist/person from art/subject. This is art as being inherently vindictive and artists being hopelessly dysfunctional, driven by primal needs for sexual and material validation, acquisition and ownership. Like "Crumb", Zwigoff portrays artists as being bullied, vengeful and predisposed to self-hate, misogyny and misanthropy at best, and being deluded, clueless air-heads at worst. Audiences fare no better, more infatuated with serial killers and blood that anything else."Art School Confidential" is a good film, dark, funny and hits upon many truths, but Zwigoff's tone is unrelentingly grim and pessimistic. It's indicative of a certain postmodern trend. It's no longer that the universe is "meaningless, random, absurd and stupid" so lets resign to playfully making "films about meaningless, absurd and stupid universes" (Woody, Solondz, the Coens etc), but that now all art or representation of such absurdities is itself an absurd gesture. In other words, we move beyond the "it's just a joke, a game, a genre rift" of postmodernity, to an overt statement that representation itself is debased and now no longer worth it; meta-nihilism squared. "Art School Confidential" doesn't necessarily say this – it's not as anti-art as some claim – but it is representative of a growing trend.8/10 – Worth one viewing. See "Exit Through the Gift Shop", "Ghost World" and "The Shape of Things".

shaunephillips28 So there seems to be a lot of debate amongst people who have watched this movie. Some say the movie completely changes half way through, others say those people just don't get that the movie is the ultimate jab at the art world today. I myself completely believe it abandons what made the movie good in the first place. Don't get me wrong I get what the movie was going for in the end, but I'm sorry if this movie is supposed to be the ultimate jab at how the art world works today then the movie is completely full of itself. Of course from the early parts of the movie there is hints that the movie could move into darker places and the movie was poking fun at the art world from the start, but give me a break. The way this movie goes from a funny black comedy and just completely turns dark half way through is an insult to the viewer because it abandons why people liked the movie in the first place. Now I get that the mood changes because Jerome's idea of art and the world around him changes, but there is ways to convey that message without removing the sarcastic/funny edge. In all honesty if the whole idea of this movie was to get to the dark ending, then the first half of the movie should of been more in line with the last half. I feel like 2 different people made this movie and never consulted each other on what they were doing. One half seems to be a funny "haha" jab at how stupid the art world can be and the last half feels like a big F U! to the art world. Funny thing is that I watched this movie with my partner who is a painter and he loved how the movie poked fun at all the dumb things he had to go through at art school, but when the movie went completely dark he said and I quote "that last half was f*cking stupid".I do think people should watch this movie, but just beware to not get caught up in the funny side because you'll be disappointed.Oh yeah, I should also mention that the love story plays a pivotal role in this movie which you'll see when you watch it. But!!! no matter how much the love story is integral to the whole story, it does not excuse the movie going from a black comedy about art, school, love and life to entirely dark.I could really say so much more because there are things I didn't mention, but just go watch it and come to your own conclusions.

Metal Angel Ehrler What can I say? I always considered that art- as in paintings, drawings and such- was a very complicated thing to follow. I mean, you see a painting, you let it be absorbed into your consciousness, you reflect about it, and then you decide about what it means and whether it has any significance to you. But how do you know if it's actually "art"? This is why I found Terry Zwigoff's "Art School Confidential" to be an utterly refreshing look at the art world, which is even more complicated than what I actually believed it to be. The film deals with a quiet, lonely boy called Jerome Platz (Max Minghella), who has been bullied and ignored ever since he was a child. Now, Jerome's hero is Pablo Picasso, and ever since he remember he's wanted to be a grand artist, like his hero. "I wanna be the greatest artist of the 21st century!," he often squeals delightedly throughout the film.Anyway, little Jerome grows up, graduates from high-school and decides to enroll in a renowned art school, where young artists whose art is actually new and modern can hope to make a name out of themselves. This college is a tiny but colourful world populated with a large array of weird and quirky characters, all of them "artists", and in comes young, boyish, quiet Jerome trying to be an artist like all of them.Upon entering his dorm room, he encounters his two roommates, a fat film major (Ethan Suplee) working on a short film based on some murders that have been terrorizing the campus grounds, and a noticeably gay fashion major (Nick Swardson) who swears he misses his girlfriend.And in his most important class, little Jerome meets his holier-than-thou professor (John Malkovich) who's so full of himself to actually notice any of his students' work, a flunkie (Joel David Moore) who enrolled into art school just for the 'pussy', and...a gorgeous, sophisticated model (Sophia Myles) who also happens to be the daughter of a famous painter and who instantly becomes Jerome's muse and obsession.Throughout the film, which is perfectly written and refreshingly funny, we follow Jerome's steady psychological downfall. He begins as a happy and anxious boy with dreams, and he slowly progresses into a disheartened, depressed, suicidal failure of an artist. This happens because his art isn't appreciated at all, because he notices how arbitrary and tediously unnerving the "art world" really is, and because his muse and obsession doesn't pay him any attention and prefers to mingle with a hunky, handsome new art student who also becomes the number one artist in school and who's "art" (if it can even be called that) Jerome loathes above anything else.Why brings me back to the initial question: how do you know if something is really "art"? Through various hilarious and original encounters with artists, connoisseurs and art grads, Jerome begins to put two and two together and finds that this world that he so reveres is actually soul-sucking and lifeless. "It's not about how good you are," an art school grad (Jim Broadbent) says, "It's about how good you are at cock-sucking." But then, just when poor Jerome is about to give up on his life, his art, his everything...well, something happens that will give him one last chance to make a name for himself, to conquer his muse and adoration and to make sense out of all the craziness he's living through.More than an ironic film that exposes "art" as we know it nowadays, this film touches on the basic human feelings of failure, redemption and need. It also talks about love. And it's also very, very funny...which is good, because there is still comedy in life's tragedies, isn't there? I highly recommend this film. Believe me, you will not be disappointed! Rating: 4 stars out of 4!!