Film Forum

U.S., 2006
Directed by Terry Zwigoff
Based on the comic by Daniel Clowes
Starring Max Minghella, John Malkovich, Sophia Myles, Joel David Moore, Jim Broadbent
Approx. 102 min.

“Even though it is unerringly specific in its satirical barbs against the pseudo-sophistication of its student characters as it is nailing the thinly veiled desperation of the instructors (a perfectly cast, scene-stealing John Malkovich is at the top of his game as a vaguely swishy professorial type who, between clenched teeth, bitterly recalls he was painting colored symmetrical pop-art triangles when nobody was doing that!), ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL is really a tale of demolished idealism appropriate for any creative job market. The young hero Jerome (Max Minghella, appealingly sly) starts out wanting to be as great an artist as Pablo Picasso, but when his fledgling attempts are scorned by his peers and, more important, when the hot model he falls for (Sophia Myles) dumps him for the bad-boy jock with a heart of gold (Matt Keeslar), he bitterly realizes other ways of getting ahead: artistic plagiarism.” – Slant Magazine

Presented with support from The Ada Katz Fund for Literature in Film

Reviews

“A low-key satire of the consensual illusion of art world success… deftly evokes the peculiar, funny-sad heartbreak of the aspiring genius.”
– Los Angeles Times