Art School Confidential (2006) **1/2
Art School Confidential (2006) is to this day Terry Zwigoff's most recent film and I can only guess that is at least partly due to the poor reception that it received. And I can't say that I disagree with the consensus in this case—I seemed to remember liking this film more when I saw it the year it was released. I've come to realize that Zwigoff is a very inconsistent director—he made one masterpiece (Crumb (1994), my favorite documentary), one excellent coming-of-age outsider comedy (Ghost World (2001)), another solid documentary (Louie Bluie (1985)), a crude but funny and popular (though IMO overrated) comedy (Bad Santa (2003)) and then Art School Confidential—a solid, but underwhelming effort.
ASC comes off scattershot, due to a lack of a distinctive "voice." Part of that is because it doesn't go pulpy enough for its wanna-be dime store novel plot and it also doesn't have a particular visual style or tone (which could be argued is appropriate given that the main character is trying to find his own artistic style). But it just ends up being a mishmash: part college comedy, part film noir, part sincere drama, yet with no cohesion (at times it feels like a half-hearted rehash of Ghost World). Additionally, despite an excellent cast, everyone seems to be just going through the motions. Our (anti)hero's journey doesn't feel convincing or all that interesting. There are some very humorous and bitingly accurate portrayals of both pretentious art school students and teachers alike, but when the film takes a hard left turn in the second half and attempts to become a full-blown noir, it just doesn't click.
I've never read Daniel Clowe's original comic, which the film is based on, but unlike Ghost World the team of Clowes and Zwigoff did not strike gold a second time. I hope I don't come off too harsh—ASC is an enjoyable enough movie, but given that Clowe's comic was only 4 pages long, unless Zwigoff was going to go for broke with visual and comedic/dramatic flair, maybe it should have been adapted into a short film instead of a feature (or maybe shouldn't have been adapted at all).
ASC comes off scattershot, due to a lack of a distinctive "voice." Part of that is because it doesn't go pulpy enough for its wanna-be dime store novel plot and it also doesn't have a particular visual style or tone (which could be argued is appropriate given that the main character is trying to find his own artistic style). But it just ends up being a mishmash: part college comedy, part film noir, part sincere drama, yet with no cohesion (at times it feels like a half-hearted rehash of Ghost World). Additionally, despite an excellent cast, everyone seems to be just going through the motions. Our (anti)hero's journey doesn't feel convincing or all that interesting. There are some very humorous and bitingly accurate portrayals of both pretentious art school students and teachers alike, but when the film takes a hard left turn in the second half and attempts to become a full-blown noir, it just doesn't click.
I've never read Daniel Clowe's original comic, which the film is based on, but unlike Ghost World the team of Clowes and Zwigoff did not strike gold a second time. I hope I don't come off too harsh—ASC is an enjoyable enough movie, but given that Clowe's comic was only 4 pages long, unless Zwigoff was going to go for broke with visual and comedic/dramatic flair, maybe it should have been adapted into a short film instead of a feature (or maybe shouldn't have been adapted at all).
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