ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL (2006)

Director: Terry Zwigoff

Writer: Daniel Clowes (inspired by his comic book story)

Producers: Daniel Clowes, John Malkovich, Lianne Halfon, Russell Smith

Cast: Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich, Joel David Moore, Jim Broadbent, Ethan Suplee, Matt Keeslar, Nick Swardson, Steve Buscemi (uncredited), Anjelica Huston, Adam Scott, Jack Ong, Jeremy Guskin, Isaac Laskin, Scoot McNairy, Monika Ramnath, Jeanette Brox, Shelly Cole, Finneus Egan, Jean St. James, Cristen Coppen, Katherine Moennig, Michael Shamus Wiles, Ezra Buzzington, Lauren Lee Smith, Chris L. McKenna, Paul Collins, Travis Walck, Valyn Hall, Lauren Bowles, Marshall Bell, Dick Bakalyan, Kimi Reichenberg, Alex Ryan, Marc Vann, Brian Turk, Michael Lerner, Zachary Maurer, Erik M. Walker

Young Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) decides to attend the Strathmore Institute art school drawn by the photo of the life class model shown in the school’s brochure. Jerome’s artistic ambitions are constantly frustrated by many of his talentless classmates and his apathetic and cynical teachers. When Audrey (Sophia Myles), the nude model from the college brochure, poses for his drawing class, Jerome is immediately smitten. However, Jonah (Matt Keeslar), a hunky and seemingly untalented fellow student, begins dating Audrey sending Jerome’s spirits into a downward spiral. To make college life even grimmer, there has been a series of slayings on campus by the “Strathmore Strangler.”

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

Once again director Terry Zwigoff joined quirky comedic forces with cartoonist Daniel Clowes to adapt another of Clowes’ comic book stories. The original “Art School Confidential” that had appeared in Clowes’ Eightball comic book was a short, autobiographical piece about Clowes’ college days in art school. The movie is a fictional dark comedy written by Clowes and informed by his art school experiences and artistic temperament. Clowes continues to dwell on the dolts, losers, and jerks that are as prevalent in the world of the aspiring artist as anywhere else in society. Affectation, ambition, and ego run rampant and often confound any artistic idealism.

It is a shame that Art School Confidential never achieved as positive a reception as the earlier Zwigoff directed adaptation of Clowes’ comic book serial Ghost World (2001). To be sure, this film is much darker in tone while still delivering plenty of quirky character comedy. It seems far more cynical in its attitude throughout and ends not on a note of “what’s next?” melancholy but with a rather bleak triumph that is perplexing and/or depressing. The whole point of the film seems to be that attention-getting spectacle is more important to the masses than artistic talent. Talent is only lauded if it is noticed, and how it gets noticed is often due to anything but artistry.

Max Minghella plays the central character of the sincere and talented artist Jerome Platz. He resents the lax standards of grading at his school and struggles to grasp just how to achieve any success in the art world when those around him have no talent and can’t appreciate his. The fact that he is away from home for the first time and trying to figure out how one is supposed to get along in the “real world” as an artist makes him quite sympathetic. I had never seen Minghella in a role before and was quite shocked to find out that he is an English actor. He delivers a great performance as the disillusioned American art student.

Sophia Myles is another Britisher in the cast as the American art class model Audrey. She is always convincing as the unaffected free spirit that in other films would probably be trying to hit us over the head with her individualism. Audrey does not make character proclamations or strive to confound anything or anyone. She does not distract from the crux of the story about Jerome seeking artistic validation and Audrey’s love. 

Bardo (Joel David Moore) is probably my favorite character. He is the slacker that quite honestly sums up his character’s rut of continually changing his major rather than ever graduate because he does not know just what the hell he wants to do with his life. Being a seasoned college student, he takes freshman Jerome under his wing to share his wry assessments of the various types that are their classmates.

On the other end of the ambition scale is Jerome’s roommate Vince (Ethan Suplee). He is the crude and driven film student that provides many laugh-out-loud moments. I admire Vince’s enthusiasm, even though his tireless filmmaking efforts always seem as if he is trying to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.

Strathmore’s recent superstar alumnus Marvin Bushmiller (Adam Scott) is an arrogant asshole. We never learn just what his art was about and why he gained success. That is beside the point if all that matters is getting noticed and making money.

Some famed veteran actors are in attendance to further enrich the strange Strathmore Institute experience. John Malkovich and Anjelica Huston play two of the Strathmore faculty while Ghost World’s Steve Buscemi returns here as the ill-tempered proprietor of the nearby coffee house/art gallery.

While there are plenty of oddballs to be found on campus, the most depressing character is the off-campus Strathmore alumnus named Jimmy (Jim Broadbent). Once an idealistic and talented artist like Jerome, he has descended to a squalid life as a drunken, dour recluse. When Bardo introduces Jerome to Jimmy, it is done with the zeal of a carnival barker revealing a sideshow freak to shock and amuse. However, the nihilistic Jimmy becomes an oracle of bitter wisdom for Jerome as Jerome is just beginning to experience the artistic frustration that has long soured the much older failed artist.

As if that were not dark enough, there is also the serial killer roaming the campus and claiming victims. This is one of the things that give Art School Confidential an off-putting tone for many and, at first glance, may seem to be an extraneous bit of nastiness. It is actually used to provoke other characters to actions of artistic exploitation that again grapples with the conundrum of artistic integrity. That extra element really primes the theme of artistic frustration and attention-seeking excess that is the cruel canvas this story is rendered on.

Like the first Zwigoff/Clowes film Ghost World, Art School Confidential also deals with the frustration of young adulthood. In Ghost World friends Enid and Rebecca are coping with their transition after high school into the world of adults without having any certain plans or ambitions. The main difference in Art School Confidential is that Jerome knows what his goals are, but he is continually having his sense of artistic integrity challenged.

As in that earlier film, there are still plenty of hilarious characters here amidst the melancholy and despair. Most of them rouse laughter while still stressing how unfair this situation seems to Jerome. The talentless misfits seem to have as much of a chance for success as Jerome. His talent and dedication seem to be mostly unappreciated.

Despite the drama, comedy, and angst of the situations, the behaviors of all the characters always seem appropriate to the environment. No one ever seems to be striving for the “movie moment” that is supposed to make us notice them or manipulate us. That is why in roles large and small these actors all make memorable impressions. Their performances ring true even as they demonstrate how unhappy, naïve, petty, or offensive they are. All of these characters and their actions are there to serve the movie’s theme and convincingly populate the dismal campus of the Strathmore Institute.

GHOST WORLD (2001)

Director: Terry Zwigoff

Writers: Daniel Clowes, Terry Zwigoff (adapting Daniel Clowes’ Ghost World comic book stories)

Producers: Liane Halfon, John Malkovich, Russell Smith

Cast: Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, Brad Renfro, Bob Balaban, Illeana Douglas, Stacey Travis, Dave Sheridan, Brian George, Ezra Buzzington, Tom McGowan, Pat Healy, Debra Azar, T.J.Thyne, Rini Bell, Dylan Jones, Ashley Peldon, David Cross, Bruce Glover, Teri Garr  (uncredited)

Best friends Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) are two contrarian girls that have just graduated high school. As they are both coming to grips with starting adulthood, Enid befriends a much older, eccentric, music buff named Seymour (Steve Buscemi). Enid’s growing relationship with Seymour strains her friendship with Rebecca. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

In the late '80s, Daniel Clowes became my favorite contemporary cartoonist. He first created a series of surreal stories in a retro world of the late '50s about a hip and hapless detective named Lloyd Llewellyn. He followed that up with his eccentric anthology comic book series Eightball. Clowes’ work is unique and often bitingly critical. He fixates on the moronic and sometimes unfathomable quirks of popular culture and social attitudes. His Ghost World story was serialized in issues of Eightball.

As soon as I heard that Daniel Clowes’ work would be adapted to film, I knew I had to see it. I was absolutely delighted with the result. Frankly, I remembered very little of the Ghost World comic book stories, so the film made a pretty fresh impression on me. This may come as faint praise from this retro reprobate that disdains much of contemporary popular culture, but heed me when I proclaim that Ghost World is the best film of the twenty-first century! Okay, so I admit it’s also one of the few films that I have seen made in this century. However, that praise IS coming from the man that can discern the merits of neglected masterpieces such as Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (1965) and Cauldron of Blood (1967), so I must know what the hell I am talking about. 

Since director Terry Zwigoff had made the acclaimed documentary Crumb (1994) about the famous underground comix artist Robert Crumb, adapting the stories of another out-of-the-mainstream cartoonist seems like a natural progression. Clowes and Zwigoff are a match made in pop culture purgatory. They seem to share a quirky, sardonic, and morose simpatico that makes the Ghost World film so unique. 

This dramedy is a coming of age story that does not give us character arcs resulting in triumphant resolutions. It is not teen-centric pandering stroking a youthful audience into believing they have all the answers and that their cynical affectations make them strong. Ghost World deals with that uncertain limbo between adolescence and adulthood. 

The reason that we care about teenagers Enid and Rebecca is that they are interesting personalities. They reject the shallowness and conformity of most of their peers while they are both fascinated and amused by the oddballs in their world. They strive for individualism that will suit them, even as they are frustrated with a world that will impose responsibility upon them. 

Thora Birch is just wonderful as Enid. She is perceptive, sensitive, impulsive, and funny. She may be rude at times, but she is also introspective and confused. We can’t help but empathize with her as she suffers the presence of her ineffectual father (Bob Balaban) and all the louts that she encounters.

Scarlett Johansson, as Enid’s best friend Rebecca, is the terse and stoic counterpoint to Enid’s whimsy and volatility. When Enid refers to herself as cute in an old childhood photo, Rebecca’s response absolutely slays me. Rebecca does share a lot of Enid’s contrarian attitudes, but she seems to be more pragmatic about accepting that the “real world” will demand decisions and responsibilities. 

All around these two funny and frustrated girls are the many strange characters that conform to the silly and dehumanizing world around them. However, conformity does not keep people from becoming puzzling weirdos or grotesque louts. Ghost World is loaded with hilarious performances in roles large and small. 

The one oddball that becomes the most sympathetic character in the movie is Seymour (Steve Buscemi). He is an office worker and loner that obsesses about his old-time blues and jazz record collection and has general contempt for most of contemporary society. He is the victim of an anonymous prank Enid perpetrates. Once Enid meets Seymour, she finds a kindred spirit in the middle-aged man’s eccentricity and nonconformity. 

Melancholy looms over all of the humor in this story. We fear that the demands of dreary adulthood in a shallow culture will destroy the nonconformist idealism of Enid and Rebecca. Now that’s a horror that this fright flick junkie just can’t handle.