Art School Confidential

An idealistic student (Max Minghella) at a prestigious Art School goes to extreme lengths to win the attention and affection of the model (Sophia Myles) he’s fallen for.

Art School Confidential is either not clever enough, or too clever for its own good. On the one hand, it’s a scathing look at the pretentious tendencies of art and artists, but, on the other hand, it’s a formulaic teen comedy. Initially, you might think it’s actually poking fun at the teen comedy genre, but in reality it’s shackled by it, which results in a frustratingly uneven film that alternates between brilliance and mediocrity.

This extends to the cast. Max Minghella is passable as the lead, but isn’t nondescript enough to be believable. He’s too well put together, too good looking, and ultimately, too Hollywood. Fortunately, the rest of the cast is great. Sophia Myles charms the viewer just as fast as she does Minghella’s character, John Malkovich turns in the funniest scene in the film as a frustrated teacher who was “one of the first” when it came to triangles, and Ethan Suplee is wonderfully manic as Minghella’s character’s roommate.

In the end, it almost seems as if writer Daniel Clowes wasn’t confident his story could work as a simple satire, and shoehorned in a lame serial killer and police sub-plot to compensate. While the idea could work with more teeth, here it seems like an afterthought, rather than an organic expansion of the story. Yes, it provides a few laughs, but it makes the plot far too predictable.