PIFF REVIEW: 'Art School Confidential'


Capsule review from The Oregonian's larger coverage of the 29th Portland International Film Festival. Click on the title link for the movie's official Web site.




'Art School Confidential'

In interviews, indie cartoonist Chris Ware slams his alma mater, Chicago's School of the Art Institute, by referring to it as the "Art of the School Institute."

It's a comment on the way art class exists mostly to reinforce its own bureaucracy. (David Mamet makes a similar point when he dismisses acting class as being part of a larger, and unnecessary, "institutional model.")

And it rather neatly sums up one of the less-subtle points of indie cartoonist Daniel Clowes' screenplay for "Art School Confidential."

Clowes' reunion with director Terry Zwigoff (they previously collaborated on "Ghost World") follows a talented but pathetically romantic suburbanite (Max Minghella) as he slowly loses his soul (and maybe his sanity) at an urban art college -- while obsessing over a hot art model (Sophia Myles) and confronting pretention, careerism and a homicidal maniac.

The movie has some mean things to say about art-world careerism and our obsession with images, and it's hilarious in chunks. (John Malkovich is fantastically passive-aggressive as a teacher who's wasted decades kissing fannies while learning to paint perfect triangles.) But overall, the bite feels a bit soft coming from the man who helmed "Bad Santa." It's frankly hard to know who this movie is for, exactly -- the art-school stereotypes are too easy and broad for anyone who's spent any time in that world, and it's hard to imagine anyone else caring about anything beyond the frat-movie-grade sex jokes. Grade: B

United States; 102 mins. (6:45 p.m. Friday 2/24, Guild; 8 p.m. Saturday 2/25, Whitsell Auditorium)

PIFF spinning into final weekend, but first, a fine preview (The Oregonian, Feb. 23, 2005)
PIFF: Down to its last reels (The Oregonian, Feb. 24, 2006)

The 29th Portland International Film Festival
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Posted: Fri - February 24, 2006 at 12:00 AM        

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