"Art School Confidential" follows a talented young artist Jerome Platz 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, like his hero Picasso.
Release Date: May 5, 2006 (NY, LA; wider release: May 12) Studio: Sony Pictures Classics Director: Terry Zwigoff
Screenwriter: Daniel Clowes Starring: Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Anjelica Huston Genre: Comedy MPAA Rating: R (for language including sexual references, nudity and a scene of violence) Official Website: ArtSchoolConfidentialmovie.com
MPAA: Rated R for language including sexual references, nudity and a scene of violence. Runtime: USA:102 min
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM, and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG
SYNOPSIS
In "Art School Confidential," director Terry Zwigoff returns to a theme from his films "Crumb" and "Ghost World": the isolation of sensitive people whose interests and work are under-appreciated in a vacuous contemporary world.
The film is Zwigoff's second adaptation of a comic story by Daniel Clowes, after "Ghost World," for which they shared an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2002.
"Art School Confidential" follows a talented young artist Jerome Platz (Max 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, like his hero Picasso.
Unfortunately, the beauty and craft of Jerome's portraiture are not appreciated in an anything-goes art class that he finds bewildering and bogus. Neither his harsh judgments of his classmates' efforts or his later attempts to create pseudo-art of his own win him any admirers.
But Jerome does attract the attentions of his dream girl - the stunning and sophisticated Audrey (Sophia Myles) - an artist's model and daughter of a celebrated artist. Rejecting the affectations of the local art scene, Audrey is drawn to Jerome's sincerity.
When Audrey shifts her attentions to Jonah (Matt Keeslar), a hunky painter who becomes the school's latest art star, Jerome is heartbroken. Desperate, he concocts a risky plan to make a name for himself and win her back.
Filling out Jerome's world are a host of offbeat characters, including: a quirky art teacher (John Malkovich) who takes an extra-curricular interest in Jerome; a failed artist (Jim Broadbent), drowning in alcohol and self-pity; a regal art history professor (Anjelica Huston) Jerome tries to influence; a coffee shop owner-cum-art impresario (Steve Buscemi) swelling with self-importance; a worldly classmate (Joel David Moore), who introduces Jerome in the intricate mores of campus life; and Jerome's filmmaker roommate (Ethan Suplee), exploding with energy to create a cinematic masterpiece.
Sometimes
our passions don’t correspond with reality.
Sure,
they may be the only thing we can think about. They may
be the only thing we truly know about ourselves and the
life we are meant to lead. But when our passions meet
the world around us, the truth is that some are just not meant
to be, meant to ever be, or at least not meant to be
right now. Especially when it comes to the creative side of things…
— Continued
I
will not post these comments. I
welcome your spiritual concerns and prayer needs. I will correspond
with you, usually within two weeks.
Email David Bruce