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Written by Pete Timmermann Tuesday, 25 April 2006 07:16

This is a film that works primarily on the nostalgia factor, but those who should feel nostalgic after seeing the film just weren’t feeling it.

Meeting an unfriendly critical reception at its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival does not bode well for the new Terry Zwigoff film Art School Confidential, as that is the audience most likely to enjoy his flaying of the stereotypical art school. It seems like film critics, assuming that they went to through some kind of art/media theory/production program while undergrads, would connect with the film’s hero Jerome and his follies in trying to avoid being a stereotypical, pretentious art student while also trying to avoid hanging out with the same, much like how high school football players can relate to Varsity Blues or Friday Night Lights or how reformed outsiders can relate the Enid in Zwigoff’s previous effort Ghost World (which was based on Daniel Clowes’ adapted screenplay from his graphic novel, as is Art School). This is a film that works primarily on the nostalgia factor, but those who should feel nostalgic after seeing the film just weren’t feeling it.

Max Minghella plays Jerome, a fresh-faced, down-to-earth, idealistic freshman entering the art program at Strathmore, which is taught by a pretentious old hack, Professor Sandiford (John Malkovich). While Sandiford may be lacking in the creation, inspiration, or teaching of art, there are many locals who are there to fill in the gaps, from a famous artist and Strathmore alum played by Whit Stillman and Noah Baumbach regular Christopher Eigeman, to Jerome’s friend Jonah (Matt Keeslar), to Jerome’s filmmaker roommate Vince (Ethan Suplee, who seems to be imitating his usual acting partner, Jason Lee). The two most notable sources of inspiration in Jerome’s artistic life are a washed-up drunk but potentially brilliant undiscovered artist Jimmy (Jim Broadbent, who in a perfect world would win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work here) and Audrey (Sophia Myles), the resident nude model and crush of many an art student.

The story goes more or less where one would expect it to: The joy in the movie is reveling in the curmudgeonry of Clowes and Zwigoff, and the recognition art school alums will get in seeing the stereotypes (when a normal-looking guy enters an art class on the first day, Jonah remarks to Jerome, “Who’s the weirdo?”). The fact that it appeals to a smaller audience than films like Ghost World or Bad Santa going in, and being marginally less successful overall than those films, may make Art School Confidential seem like a rare misstep for the intensely talented Zwigoff (one only needs to see Crumb to forever recognize his inarguable talents as a filmmaker). But really, while it may be a step down when compared with the director’s back catalogue, it is still several steps up from just about every other film released in the United States in any given year.