What does it take to be the greatest artist of the century? Can an aspiring artist with true talent and drive really make it in this crazy post-modern era?Jerome, from the movie Art School Confidential, is dying to find out if he can achieve his wildest dreams, but is slowly realizing how messed up the art world, and the world in general, really is.
The movie is somewhat dark comedy starring Max Minghella as a skilled and under appreciated art student who struggles to fit into a school which seems to reward the absurd and shun the gifted. More and more he resents his fellow students, especially after they ignore his best work and praise artwork which children are capable of. He calls one self portrait a “lame Cy Twombly imitation” and gets crucified for it. The fact that Jerome’s teacher (John Malkovich) is a post-modernist has-been who claims that it has taken him 25 years to develop the skills to paint a triangle on a canvas, doesn’t help.
When serial stranglings start occurring around campus, the distraught Jerome becomes a suspect. He can’t help but feel sympathy for the killer…
Also appearing is Steve Buscemi as a temperamental coffee bar owner, and Sophia Myles as Jerome’s unattainable love interest. I assume any audience would find some scenes hilarious, whether they’re involved in art or not. One scene is particularly funny to me because it shows how out of touch with reality some art students can be. The one kid in this scene has me cracking up with every line he has in the movie- he’s the pretentious minimalist type who displayed an unfinished work so the method itself can be the artwork.
This is one of the funny scenes:
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