Art School Confidential – Review

Bullied kid Jerome gives a presentation on the genius Pablo Picasso and how he is the greatest artist of the 20th century. He concludes with that despite he was super short and bald, he can have sex with any beautiful woman that he wanted, because he was so great!!

Six years later, bullied kid Jerome (Minghella) is still interested in art, and draws his hottie classmate at lunch time. Too bad she has a boyfriend. Bummer. But hey, if he gets famous someday, that sketch she has now may be worth a lot of money!! Oh well, Jerome tunes it out and focuses on the Strathmore Institute, a college with a brochure offering an artist’s dream. Too good to be true? Nah.

As newbie Jerome hits the campus, rooms with fucking pumped up film major Junior Vince (Suplee) and fashion major Freshman Matthew (Swardson) who misses his girlfriend. Will this be better than high school? With tons of beautiful girls around, things should be good right? Oh, but wait, three murders in the neighborhood since March. The Strathmore Strangler has diminished enrollment…

Come along and navigate the trials and tribulations of art, school, and confidential, in the aptly titled Art School Confidential. If your expectations are set to “medium” you may enjoy the ride.

This film pairs the comic book author with the same director as the film Ghost World, both of which being based on Clowes’ respective graphic novels. They are more intimate life comics focused on observational and behavioral humor layered on top of personal and human tales. There may be some exaggeration and ridiculousness, but in general they are representative of life’s absurdities.

The humor has a nice vibe to it, and does add some flavor while keeping scenes interesting as you are never quite sure what is coming. There are bright spots with casting which runs fairly deep with character actors and a few veterans who pop up mostly as teachers.

My reservations were with a script that wasn’t all that compelling and moves too slowly. It’s full of characters I didn’t have significant emotional attachment with, comedy which didn’t go far enough, and basic drama. Acting was still pretty good, and while this film may not wow you with anything too new, it remains a serviceable life drama with a quality injection of comedy. The comic version may be the superior experience.