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Art School Confidential
Sony Pictures Classics / United Artists


6.6

based on 30 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 25 votes
Read user comments
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for language including sexual references, nudity and a scene of violence

Starring Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, Matt Keeslar, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Anjelica Huston, Joel Moore, and Scoot McNairy

Art School Confidential follows talented young artist Jerome Platz (Minghella) as he escapes from high school to a tiny East Coast art school. Here the boyish freshman's ambition is to become the world's greatest artist. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Daniel Clowes (also comic story)
DIRECTED BY:	Terry Zwigoff
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 10, 2006 Theatrical: May 5, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	102 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This is as dark as Zwigoff has gotten - arguably even darker than "Bad Santa." And, while it's legitimate to label Art School Confidential as a "comedy," the movie is more clever than it is funny.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The movie sputters in its later, darker passages, which by design are less audience-friendly than the earlier, satirically secure ones.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

There is a wise and understanding teacher on the faculty, played by Anjelica Huston. Defending the work of Dead White Males, she sensibly observes that when they did their best work "they weren't dead yet."

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Intelligent and robust contempt has become so rare in movies that the first half of Art School Confidential is intermittently exhilarating.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Enjoyable and reprises the same dyspeptic attitude that infused "Ghost World," but ultimately it lacks its predecessor's originality and humanity.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

It's far more ambitious than its predecessor and suffers from too many ideas rather than too few, making it an inspired, fascinating, and revealing mess.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Art School Confidential is replete with humorous detail--in that respect, the student art projects are particularly fine--but it's the attitude that rules.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

If a more elegant and succinct explanation of what compels some people to go to art school has ever been filmed, I haven't seen it.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Art School Confidential reaches its dementedly brilliant peak in the company of Jim Broadbent.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Art School Confidential mostly just makes you feel bad - period. It puts you in a foul mood and leaves you there.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Zwigoff has a rich comic gallery of pretentious boobs to lampoon. But his satirical target just seems too easy this time around: It's hard to spoof institutions that already veer so close to self-parody.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

When it's on, it's really, really on. But when it's not, it feels like it's struggling to find its style, just as Jerome is.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

As the film devolved from satire to slapstick horror, I didn't believe in it at all. But in his beetle-browed intensity and tremulousness, I completely believed in Minghella's Jerome.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Succeeds only in fits and starts.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

There's simply nobody beneath the derisive attitude worth caring about.

Slate Josh Levin

Misanthropy can be incredibly entertaining, so long as that hatred draws blood. But that extra percentage point of venom has skewed Clowes and Zwigoff's aim.

TV Guide Ken Fox

This failure is especially surprising because Zwigoff not only reunited with "Ghost World's" writer, ingenious graphic artist Dan Clowes, but he aimed to satirize a rarefied sphere both know all too well: the art world.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

It doesn't help that the central character, Jerome - earnestly played by Max Minghella of "Bee Season" - is essentially a passive observer.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

There are two movies vying to occupy the same space here: a teen comedy about artistic pretension and academic double standards, and a darker, nastier movie about a serial killer. They share Zwigoff's trademark misanthropy, but it doesn't delight as it did in the perversely sweet "Bad Santa." Now it just feels mean.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Like a smart-ass student clever enough to see through everyone but himself, Art School Confidential falls victim to the very clichés it wants to puncture.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

It works for a good while--probably half of the movie.

The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge

With an "Animal House"-ish deportment, Art School likely will entertain a sophomoric audience and etch some winning college-kid figures, but art house audiences will be disappointed by its paint-by-numbers storytelling.

Variety David Rooney

Despite a soulful leading performance from Max Minghella, pic feels insubstantial, echoing without equaling both the coolly ironic edge and heart of "Ghost World" and the incisive art-world outsider portrait of the director's docu feature, "Crumb."

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Art School Confidential exudes confidence as long as it is satirizing a questionable, at least according to Clowes, institution of higher learning. But the film loses its way with multiple subplots, becoming a hodgepodge that isn't particularly hard to follow, but, far worse, provides no compelling reason to bother.

Film Threat Eric Campos

We still love you, Terry. Happens to the best of us. But, man, what a stinky load. Someone get the hose.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

In spite of some acute observations and a few interesting performances (most notably from John Malkovich as Jerome's drawing teacher and the ever-reliable Jim Broadbent as Strathmore's least illustrious alumnus), Art School Confidential is a dull and dyspeptic exercise in self-pity and hostility.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Zwigoff's overdue for a turkey, in other words. Art School Confidential is it.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Art School Confidential, the first disappointment from director Terry Zwigoff, is all glum, dour cynicism.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Insistently sullen, nihilistic, and successful to the point of smugness at transmitting buzzkill, Art School Confidential is the second collaboration between art-house cartoonist Daniel Clowes and director Terry Zwigoff.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Zwigoff doesn't get the tone right, and the picture goes from reasonably amusing (if crude) to puzzling to boring to (when a campus strangler enters the picture) hateful.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.6 (out of 10) based on 25 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

g b gave it a1:
This movie is so pitifully dull. There is nothing compelling about the central character, nor are his motivations worthy of any sympathy. There seems no point of access by which to enjoy this film.

Linda L. gave it a2:
This movie was so bad that it actually surprised me -- especially considering the "two thumbs up" and connections to the very good "Ghost World" and "Bad Santa." Enjoyably mordant observations of art-school hypocrites give way to developments (re the serial killer subplot) that are just as inexplicable as they are ridiculous.

J H gave it an8:
This is a terrific movie. It is funny, smart, and the acting and directing are wonderful. Rent this!

Chad S. gave it a7:
Jerome's hero is Pablo Picasso, so surely, there is an awareness on his part of the dead white artist's famous observation that "good artists borrow; great artists steal." "Art School Confidential" is such a sour film; even its happy ending is laced with cynicism, as Jerome's deliberate misinterpretation of Picasso's quote brings him both, personal and professional successes. The filmmaker's potshots towards art school and its banalities are screamingly funny, but at the expense of humanity(this film is for misanthropes). Chip Kidd's novel "The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters" had both, the sling and the arrow, and its concentration was in art. "Art School Confidential", ultimately, is actually about film; more to the point, about genres and context. I wonder if the makers of "Brick" were inspired by this film.

Billy D. gave it an8:
I enjoyed this movie and would definitely watch it again. John Malcovich was quirky-good as usual.

Pete M. gave it an8:
While I would agree that it lacks the emotional weight of Ghost World and doesn’t quite match the freewheeling black wit of Bad Santa, Art School Confidential is still a fine entry into the Terry Zwigoff filmography. It offers a stellar satire of artists, art school, and the art world in general. At its best, it’s a razor sharp critique with lots of big laughs and smart jokes. This is one to check out if you like your comedy to have some bite.

Sam B. gave it a10:
This is a nasty little gem that skewers the grad/art school pretensions that a lot of knucklehead sycophants wrap their heads around, the only reason why it's getting such low scores is because it calls a lot of so called experts on their credentials and they're severly butt-hurt over it.

Art School Confidential Sony Pictures Classics / United Artists

Art School Confidential
Sony Pictures Classics / United Artists