So you want to become a great WRITER?
So you want to become a renowned COMPOSER?
So you want to become an admired FILM MAKER?
The answer is as easy as one, two, three . . . .
First, you need drive, ambition.
Second, you need something to say.
Third, you need a model, to get you started, perhaps a mentor.
Fourth, you need to work, work, work.
That last part is often what stops us. We tend to want Magic. And at some point, as they say in the business world, you have "to sell yourself."
[Not too much of yourself, hopefully.]
A little luck helps, of course, but most of all, you don't need to send a thousand bucks to a "vanity publisher" or to "The Famous Writers School" or to "The Famous Artists School."
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What about $40,000 to a hoary school of art in New York City?
Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) wanted to be an Artiste! He burned with the desire to see his drawings and paintings be recognized, to see them hung in the great museums of the World. He saw himself as another Pablo Picasso. Bullies may have laughed at him as a child, beat him up; girls tended to ignore him, or think him weird, as a teenager. But he persevered, and after his graduation from high school, his suburban parents decided to send him to the distinguished old Strathmore Academy of Art in New York City. [Read . . . hmm . . . well, there are dozens of them listed in New York -- which may explain why this Terry Zwigoff movie was not received so well in the East as was his GHOST WORLD, set out in the boondocks.]
Jerome settles in with his two upper classmen room mates: Vince (Ethan Suplee), a tough film major, and a fashion designer (Nick Swardson). Vince is working on a cutting edge documentary about the never-caught "Strathmore Strangler." The fashion designer is wrapped up in identity problems. In fact, about everyone at Strathmore gives evidence of being inordinately absorbed in his/her own ego.
Seeking "the line of beauty," which was expressed to the living end in primitive forms by Pablo Picasso, Jerome takes the live model class conducted by Professor Sandiford (John Malkovich). After announcing that anyone who wants to make a fortune should probably not be in Art, the Professor slips about, nodding, grunting, giving an occasional encouragement.
Here, Jerome encounters a series of typical aspiring artists, depicted as grotesques: mothers with empty nests, rebellious lesbian girls, loudmouth no-nothings, guys on the make. Only Jerome, with his dedication to classical technique, evinces the talent and ambition that may produce a fine artist, and only Bardo (Joel David Moore), a bearded, unkempt recidivist in the student body, recognizes his promise and encourages him in a cynical but dryly humorous way.
Disillusionment comes early for Jerome, when they attend a public interview of a Strathmore success story, Marvin Bushmiller (Adam Scott), a well dressed, imperious jerk, who insults his old professor (the interviewer) and the rest of the staff, as he suggests how he is gaming the Art World system. Only Bardo has the courage, among the fawning powder puff questioners in the group, to shout out: "Hey, how come you're such an a*shole?"
[Critic Pam Grady was reminded of the line in a Jonathan Richman song, "Picasso never got called an a*shole." But then maybe he did; many thought it, talent and genius to one side.]
Later that night, Bardo takes Jerome to the other side of the Strathmore Academy's Art World. For the price a bottle of Polish [!] Slivovitz, another graduate, Jimmy (Jim Broadbent), allows them to visit in his cruddy apartment, cluttered with demented paintings, where he lives on a trust fund in an inebriated state. His message (as well as his model) is not a good one.
Fortunately, one of the main reasons Jerome chose Strathmore was that he became infatuated with the picture of a nude model in the Academy brochure. Sure enough, after weeks of studiously rendering hairy male behinds, one morning out from under her wrapper comes the girl in the picture, Audrey (Sophia Myles). She is everything he imagined, and on her breaks she approves of his soulful sketches of her Renaissance beauty (compared, that is, to the cartoonish, pseudo-surreal, or vaguely pornographic efforts of others). She even takes him to the opening of a show by her father, a renowned artist.
But Jerome is a little too square for the worldly Audrey, who is on the rebound from a lesbian affair. She soon takes up with the natty hunk, Jonah (Matt Keeslar), who, in preparation for the prestigious Strathmore Academy Spring Exhibition, wows the class by producing a diagram-like drawing of an SUV. Professor Sandiford suggests this work of protean originality might well win the grand prize, which would give it a place to hang at the Academy hangout, the malt shop run by Strathmore grad Broadway Bob (Steve Buscemi). Immediately the rest of the class is making copies, to the best of their abilities.
For a time, Jerome struggles on to the score of David Kitay (BAD SANTA), drawn from Classical themes (sometimes working against the image).
Finally, Jerome does create something like Jonah's masterpiece; his is a sketch of a tank, such as a small boy might make.
Despite the wise counseling of his Art History prof, Sophia (Anjelika Huston), Jerome has begun to sell out.
And as the movie continues, he draws [sic] ever closer to the Strathmore Strangler.
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Based on a short graphic work by Daniel Clowes (Ghost World), filmed by Jamie Anderson in the blandly flat style he used for GHOST WORLD, the somewhat more conventional ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL presents a gentle satire, which sometimes touches parody. The film reminded me of the old TV series, "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis." Jerome, Bardo, Audrey, and Jonah are the counterparts of the characters played by Dwayne Hickman, Bob Denver, Tuesday Weld, and Warren Beatty, with Michael J. Pollard thrown in there somewhere. The situations are similar, if the setting is different.
Clearly, this story has been advanced in time from the days of Dobie Gillis, but it retains a quaint patina of Mad Magazine deadpan humor.
A cast of established character actors and unknowns alike is excellent. *John Malkovich (ON BEING JOHN MALKOVICH), who also had his Mr. Mudd Company produce the film, stands out as Professor Sandiford, as does British actor *Jim Broadbent (TOPSY TURVY) as Jimmy. Anjelika Huston, fine so far as her part allows, has a character (Art Historian Sophia) which seems "plugged in." Among the unknowns, Max Minghella (son of *Anthony Minghella -- THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY), with his "viking" eyebrows, might be a rising leading man. Joel David Moore (Bardo the Veteran) and Ethan Suplee (Vince, the serial killer-obsessed Documentarian) raised a few laughs out of me.
Critics and viewers are divided about the film. It seems to come down to to ones attitudes toward Art and art schools. Most Americans favor kitsch of the greeting card variety, representational art. Then, there are those who rush down to buy examples of the latest trend in Abstract Expressionism, a form which began to sweep Art circles in the late 1950's and early 1960's. Many of the buyers are at a loss to explain the meaning of the paintings on their walls. These days, a majority of Art schools try to maintain a balance between the extremes, and no doubt do good work for those with the right capacity to acquire skills; the needed patience and discipline to turn out finished work.
Yet, the debate over various aspects of Art and the virtues of art school continues. It will be interesting to see how the general public and the au courant of the Art community regard ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL.
Here are two reactions, taken at random, from the extensive threads found on the IMDb web page devoted to the film:
One person summed up from the perspective of a guy who attended art school: "I went to art school for 4 years. Ended up owing $70,000, but ended up entering the entertainment industry so it all worked out for the better. But most people that go to art school go in with no talent, and come out broke with no job."
Another looked in on the scene as an outsider: "The funniest thing is that the trailer shows just how lame and ridiculous these students really are. I'm not saying all of them are, but the one's [sic] I live by (the ones that live in Bed-Stuy but call it Fort Greene or worse, Clinton Hill) are lame a*ses whose parents pay their rent while they can sit around their apartments all day, swilling Pabsts and 'create.' Losers."
An inadequate sampling, no doubt, but these and other takes on the subject may well encourage a few laughs during the movie and/or a lot of discussion, if not argument, after it's over.
I liked ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL, but maybe, that's because I can remember going to class at college with a few of these characters, or sitting around in "The Hub" with them later.
See what you think.
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Eugenio de Arnal is a distinguished Latino artist, who may be found at his studio on 24th Street in San Francisco's Mission District.
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If you like ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL, you might also like Terry Zwigoff's first theatrical feature film, GHOST WORLD (also adapted from graphic work by Daniel Clowes). It explores in a similar way the attempts of young people to find a way in life. Even more stylized than ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL.
http://www.epinions.com/content_33281183364
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THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY: *Anthony Minghella's adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's classic novel about an ingratiating con man turned serial killer fell short in some estimations. But as a study of a failed artist, it remains in ones memory.
http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-7C06-2EB8A72-388CC7CE-prod1
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ON BEING JOHN MALKOVICH: Spike Jonz's breakthrough film, starring (who else but?) *John Malkovich, may be said to have made both ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL and GHOST WORLD possible, but its roots go back to the comedies of Preston Sturges.
http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-30CD-BFEFA9F-387FD651-bd1
Finally, for those who do not know the English actor *Jim Broadbent, here is a review of Mike Leigh's TOPSY TURVY, in which he played W. S. Gilbert (of Gilbert and Sullivan renown):
http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-2375-B81ABBC-3873D2ED-prod1
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