Stream it now Art School Confidential 2006

 

They should have kept this movie confidential. The idea of a black comedy revolving around an art student has some promise. However, they went short on the black comedy and added an extra story of a serial killer on campus. But that sub-plot wasn't used to supplement or generate any additional black humor (still in relative short supply by the time the serial killer plot becomes apparent). The serial killer thing was just there, ostensibly to make the end point that getting attention as an artist, even if it comes at the expense of being falsely arrested for being a serial killer,is more important than not getting noticed at all. In today's society, they just might be correct. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.........

Art School Confidential is funny. Maybe not the funniest movie around, but definitely has some spice in it. Set aside the story of a first love which is treated mundanely, there is quality satire either having a real base or not, directed towards art business, art school, or leaders of opinion on art.
Relationships between characters are sufficiently alert and funny. The series of crimes on the campus that seem an unnecessarly added story prove to become in the end a nice rich stroke against dark art.

The movie was fairly dorky and cliche but, I still love it. I love Ghost World and Crumb. My love of it is also based on the time I watched it. I had just called my dad and told him that I'm dropping out of school. I was expecting this to be a funny and uplifting comedy based upon the trailer but knowing Terry Zwigoff I should have know otherwise. I did a good job reaffirming my belief that life is going to suck. I saw a lot of similarities between myself and the main character and I hated him. When the other character pinned him as the class douchebag I knew that I was as well, I'm someone who has their head so far up their ass that they can recognize that this is true and still continue the behavior. An example of this behavior is me writing this review.

So funny! Great art work!

R.A.S.A.P

My friend saw this and fell in love because it was her freshmen college experience (minus the murder) and so I had to watch it and though it did not effect me the same way I was still very entertained by it with some great wit and fun story/characters.

The forgivable smidgeons self-righteous, on-the-nose satire in Ghost World is amplified to 11 in Art School Confidential, a strained and misguided attempt to expand on the art-school criticisms in Zwigoff and Clowes' previous collaboration, which really didn't need expanding on. As someone who attended and quickly dropped out of an arts institution, I can say that this film pretty much hits the nail on the head, but it does so within the first 10 minutes and then keeps hammering home its point. Fortunately, it's still an amusing piece of smart entertainment that once again shows off Zwigoff's considerable visual talent. It's also packed with funny, enjoyable performances from John Malkovich, Joel David Moore, and Jim Broadbent. The serial killer angle is bizarrely shoehorned in, and helps to spread the mess around in a movie that blows its load early and ultimately goes nowhere, and it's a pretty huge disappointment as a follow-up to Ghost World, but it's still worth a watch for the many moments where the creative duo align like planets to create something pretty nifty in the details.

good...

Art School Confidential (2006)

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