Dear Terry Zwigoff, Art School Confidential was a hilarious film. I have never been to art school so I don't think I got all the jokes. I also know nothing about paintings or modern art. But this film about shy and self absorbed young artist (Max Minghella) and his life at an art school where he meets many eccentric characters, falls in love and his desperate and felonious attempts to achieve fame are as dark and entertaining as Enid's battle against phony's and dullards in Ghost World. Daniel Clowes really packs it in with the jokes and the social commentary. I cannot think of a single unremarkable scene in the whole film. Every single scene is worth watching over and over again. The supporting cast was astonishingly brilliant. Jim Broadbent deserves special mention. I often rewatch the scenes which he appears in. The part where he calls for a plague to wipe off the human race was very well written and acted. The character who is so disillusioned with the state of the human race that he has to murder people for inspiration was very interesting. Adam Scott as the prickly successful artist had one of the best scenes in the whole film. Jeanette Brox was terrific as the irritable and shabbily dressed Milo. Joel David Moore as the lazy art student was the perfect foil for Max Minghella's's tenacious lead character. There were so many other brilliant bit players in the film. I could recognize most of these actors if they appeared in other films. That is how good they were. Art School Confidential, like Ghost World is one of those films where you feel like the characters are your close friends and you can empathize with their plight in the face of a cruel and indifferent world. Best Regards, Pimpin. (10/10)

I watched this movie at the recommendation of a friend. Honestly, I feel like I've more or less wasted my time with it. I'm an art student, so I'm not talking from outside of this world. Now, I understand that this movie is intended as a bit of a parody, but it fails to deliver that. It's filled with clichés and just disappointed me. From the very start, I didn't like Jerome. Badly written character. He lacks depth, personality, and is weak. He so easily changed his mind about life after talking to Mr. Serial Killer that I almost laughed. Suddenly, everything is dark and brooding, while the movie didn't set the pacing or the atmosphere for this kind of mystery flick. Besides, the ending being left unexplained doesn't "make me think" as I imagine was intended, it just leaves me dry and uninterested. The only reason I'm giving this a 6 is some of the secondary role actors who were good in their place, and some scenes that sparked my interest. Maybe my expectations of this were too high.

This film portrays the art and art school world in an offensive, clichéd and vulgar way. It is obviously made by people who know little about art and or New York and foments every false and stereotypically philistine idea Americans have about what is going on there. John Malkovitch should be ashamed of himself for his hackneyed, mannered performance (nothing new) as a stupid, shallow, self-involved art professor. This film does more damage to the world of high culture than the worst Hollywood shoot-em-up drivel. Shame on all involved in it. I give three stars instead of none for the good performances of the young actors. I hope this director never works again. He should end up in Hollywood Hell along with Michael Sarne, director of Myra Blechinridge!

What can I say? I always considered that art- as in paintings, drawings and such- was a very complicated thing to follow. I mean, you see a painting, you let it be absorbed into your consciousness, you reflect about it, and then you decide about what it means and whether it has any significance to you. But how do you know if it's actually "art"? This is why I found Terry Zwigoff's "Art School Confidential" to be an utterly refreshing look at the art world, which is even more complicated than what I actually believed it to be. The film deals with a quiet, lonely boy called Jerome Platz (Max Minghella), who has been bullied and ignored ever since he was a child. Now, Jerome's hero is Pablo Picasso, and ever since he remember he's wanted to be a grand artist, like his hero. "I wanna be the greatest artist of the 21st century!," he often squeals delightedly throughout the film.Anyway, little Jerome grows up, graduates from high-school and decides to enroll in a renowned art school, where young artists whose art is actually new and modern can hope to make a name out of themselves. This college is a tiny but colourful world populated with a large array of weird and quirky characters, all of them "artists", and in comes young, boyish, quiet Jerome trying to be an artist like all of them.Upon entering his dorm room, he encounters his two roommates, a fat film major (Ethan Suplee) working on a short film based on some murders that have been terrorizing the campus grounds, and a noticeably gay fashion major (Nick Swardson) who swears he misses his girlfriend.And in his most important class, little Jerome meets his holier-than-thou professor (John Malkovich) who's so full of himself to actually notice any of his students' work, a flunkie (Joel David Moore) who enrolled into art school just for the 'pussy', and...a gorgeous, sophisticated model (Sophia Myles) who also happens to be the daughter of a famous painter and who instantly becomes Jerome's muse and obsession.Throughout the film, which is perfectly written and refreshingly funny, we follow Jerome's steady psychological downfall. He begins as a happy and anxious boy with dreams, and he slowly progresses into a disheartened, depressed, suicidal failure of an artist. This happens because his art isn't appreciated at all, because he notices how arbitrary and tediously unnerving the "art world" really is, and because his muse and obsession doesn't pay him any attention and prefers to mingle with a hunky, handsome new art student who also becomes the number one artist in school and who's "art" (if it can even be called that) Jerome loathes above anything else.Why brings me back to the initial question: how do you know if something is really "art"? Through various hilarious and original encounters with artists, connoisseurs and art grads, Jerome begins to put two and two together and finds that this world that he so reveres is actually soul-sucking and lifeless. "It's not about how good you are," an art school grad (Jim Broadbent) says, "It's about how good you are at cock-sucking." But then, just when poor Jerome is about to give up on his life, his art, his everything...well, something happens that will give him one last chance to make a name for himself, to conquer his muse and adoration and to make sense out of all the craziness he's living through.More than an ironic film that exposes "art" as we know it nowadays, this film touches on the basic human feelings of failure, redemption and need. It also talks about love. And it's also very, very funny...which is good, because there is still comedy in life's tragedies, isn't there? I highly recommend this film. Believe me, you will not be disappointed! Rating: 4 stars out of 4!!