Sundance 2006 - Day three

Dave Calhoun reviews 'Art School Confidential', the new collaboration from Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes.

Jan 25 2006

Terry Zwigoff, the director of 'Ghost World' and 'Bad Santa' introduced the world premiere of his new film, 'Art School Confidential', at the Sundance Film Festival on Monday night. Fans of Zwigoff's wry, comic-book sensibility may be disappointed by what proves to be his most mainstream and least successful effort yet.

Zwigoff has once again collaborated with Daniel Clowes, the writer of both the original comic-book and screenplay for 'Ghost World'. The pair's interest in our society's arty, unwashed and undervalued outsiders continues, and their focus this time is a crumbling New York art school populated by every student stereotype under the sun and staffed, among others, by a sleazy, failed painter called Sandy (John Malkovich).

The film's first half hour is a comic treat as unsure but earnest new student Jerome (Max Minghella) arrives at art school and surveys the freaks and weirdos in his class. Zwigoff and Clowes take great delight in introducing this world and their parade of endearing stereotypes is amusing.

The problem starts when Zwigoff spins this satirical portrait into something resembling a story. There's a serial killer on the loose in the city, and his gory crimes gradually come home to roost in the art school. This storyline runs alongside Jerome's dual quest to become a good artist and to nab the girl of his dreams, life-class model Audrey (Sophia Myles).

It's all too much, too busy. Should we care about Jerome's love life? His artistic ambitions? Or this nutter who's creeping around the city and strangling his poor unsuspecting victims? The film might work as a character portrait if Minghella was able to deliver a more charismatic performance and we could sympathise with him like we did Thora Birch's character in 'Ghost World'.

But Minghella's presence is too weak. Everything happens around him. The film remains intermittently funny throughout (Jerome's two roommates, one a fashion student, the other a budding filmmaker, are good portraits) but it fails to take hold beyond these occasional good set-pieces. What begins as a tongue-in-cheek sketch of art school life takes an odd, distracting turn into intrigue from which it never recovers. A disappointment ultimately.

Day two here.
Day one here.

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