Watching “Art School Confidential” was like viewing a real life clich calling the kettle black. What exactly do I mean by this? Well, every group, such as the featured art school students, has a stereotype hovering over them. This film not only made fun of these stereotypes, but shamelessly personified them as well.
In “Art School Confidential”, we follow Jerome (Max Minghella) on his quest to become the greatest artist of the 21st century. This is a lofty goal for the feet-dragging, cardigan-wearing, brooding student who was used to getting beat up for drawing in school.
However, when Jerome arrives at Strathmore University he finds that what he thought would be like- minded peers are actually the art school clichs we all cringe at. For example, his two roommates are the intense, self-absorbed film major and the closeted, but obviously homosexual fashion major who speaks of his girlfriend as he adorns his dressing mannequin with scarves.
The professors are not much help or inspiration either. John Malkovich plays the flakey, self-indulgent, drawing teacher whose primary concern is showing his own art instead of helping his students. Also, there’s the hippy pottery teacher who doesn’t care about anything and is too preoccupied with his coffee to answer the annoying brown-noser in every class.
Obvious and tired clichs litter the film, but Jerome runs past the “angry lesbian,” and the lessons on sucking up to become successful when he meets up with the three important figures of the film: the Guru, the Master and the Muse.
In Jerome’s drawing class he is introduced to Bardo (Joel Moore), the smart-alec, perpetual drop-out who guides him through college life and ultimately leads him to Jimmy (Jim Broadbent), the Master. Broadbent’s slightly psychotic, but artistic genius character eventually taints Jerome’s innocence and replaces it with his sick brand of cynicism geared not only toward the art industry but to the world.
The most important figure is the Muse, Audrey, (played by Sophia Myles). She not only inspires Jerome’s art but also casts a spell over him. However, to Jerome’s displeasure Audrey becomes interested in the new “it” guy on campus, Jonah (Matt Keeslar), when his paintings become the new craze.
With teachers and fellow students ignoring his paintings to ogle Jonah’s work and Audrey’s affections towards him as well, Jerome barely has time to pay attention to the school scandal on everyone’s mind – the Strathmore Strangler incidents. Apparently, he has killed four students and shows no signs of stopping. The police have no concrete suspect so it seems no one is safe.
Again, with Jerome’s mind elsewhere and Audrey pre-occupied with Jonah, it seems that his self-imposed isolation filled with a lover’s lament will stop him from making it through school and becoming successful.
Towards the end, I almost didn’t care anymore if Jerome became famous and got the girl.
Even if the film was trying to make fun of its own clichs by exaggerating them through characters, it became too tiring and distracting to enjoy the actual film.
With such a promising cast I was disappointed by how middle of the road this film was. I would watch it on TV, but probably never rent it again. Satire can only take you so far in a movie when the script is so disjointed.

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