Terry Zwigoff presents you true art and the meaning of art, both Viusal and Film.It sure is pain in the ass and no one can better explain that to you than this film.
The film is about a young teenager trying to pursue a career in Art in an art school.But before he can do so, he must learn a few things about what art really is.His obsession to art school and his vision combine with the teachers minds who pretty much spend their whole time relating art with life.And in a art school where amateur art is more appreciated than professional,visionary art.But soon when he meets a women , his life takes a turn.Though,he has a nemesis to face to win the girls heart.Apparently,the nemesis' work,which is just plain childish according to our hero,is widely appreciated.So the competition begins.But as he desperately tries and loses,and gets advices from a drunken ,washed out,but talented artist,he drifts himself apart from art.But things take a big change for our depressed,lost hero,when he is gets involved in a murder mystery ,where he is the primary suspect.
Art school confidential has ideas.Lot's of intriguing offbeat ideas.And while it tries to be funny and offbeat but it fails in the end.Tries to make a successful satire out of art,but it fails to churn up even one great laugh.And it's boring at times,it just dangles around emphasizing what art really is, without actually telling us what it really is.It just mingles and experiments with the concept of art and tries to make something out of it ,pretty much throughout the film.It's characters slowly become pathetic and uninteresting.It's situations becomes absurd and pointless.It just disappoints.
But despite all that,it's fun.It sure is entertaining,but it could've been really big if any of the filmmakers even tried once.And when the plot shifts to its murder mystery,it gets even worse.It's something I didn't expect.It's got a few good moments,but it's not enough for a premise like this.The film daringly tries to make a point by shouting out loud that art schools suck.They're waste of time and just there to rip you off your cash.The students are taught by a bunch of old failures trying to make a living passing on their failures to the new generation.
It would've been better as a satire than an attached murder mystery.I mean,there's nothing wrong with the murder mystery drama thing,but I just wanted to see a proper satire here.Instead of some predictable resolution to the whole mystery.It's got some good twists and turns ,but in the end it's all too obvious.It's half baked as a love story ,and neither is it emotionally touching.Way too contrived and convoluted unintentionally.Too jumbled up.
With the exception of Broadbant,the rest of the cast is just fine.Minghella tries but can't be more than average,although he gets the character's depressing sadness.Malkovich is just a waste of talent and one would expect a lot from him.
As original as it tries to be,in the end it goes for the conventional ending.The writer,who is adapting his own book,just has no clue what he's doing and what he wants to convey most of the times.The writer focused more on the comic elements of the film rather than finding a way to solve the mysteries of the plot that can hardly fit the way it is written.It sometimes feels disconnected from the material, I mean at times you feel like watching different short movies in one film with same actors in different situations and hardly relate to the story.And the director seems to go along with it,giving us as much entertainment and fun out of it as he is able to.
This film at times becomes hard to watch as it mixes so many elements that if succeeded in mixing them well,it could have achieved remarkable result.But that is not the case in this satire. Mixing social satire, art school satire,a wicked love story, murder mystery ,and attempting to bring about a coming-of-age story.This doesn't work.
It can stand out to be a different approach, even if it's not fully successful ,it still succeeds on entertaining you.With a cop-out ending.
For all the true artists out there this film is your lesson.Perhaps.
