Art School Confidential 2006

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The movie wants to skewer the vapidity of the faddish art world and those who long to break into it, but the film is angrier than it is humorous, and it is ultimately overcome by its own bile. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Risks more highs and lows than the plaintive, even-toned Ghost World. But both, improbably, have made themselves more or less at home on screen. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Curiously, this relentlessly cynical tone turns out sounding refreshingly original compared to the usual pieties in the genre. Read more

Ted Fry, Seattle Times: No matter which is the real imitator, life or art, Art School Confidential does its own fine job skewering both. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It was dead, pitch perfect. And realistic and funny. Read more

Dennis Lim, Village Voice: A satisfyingly bilious satire. Read more

Steve Murray, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: It's often as naive as it is knowing and can feel as unfocused and sketchy as a film one of Strathmore's students might make. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Art School Confidential constitutes two-thirds of a worthy follow-up to Ghost World, but it doesn't feel nearly as substantial. Read more

Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: It's pleasant enough, features fine acting in smaller parts, rises occasionally to laughs or plot, but its ambitions and its accomplishments are modest. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: It becomes the sort of thing Zwigoff usually holds in contempt, and how depressing is that? Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: A low-key satire of the consensual illusion of art world success, Art School Confidential deftly evokes the peculiar, funny-sad heartbreak of the aspiring genius. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Even if one disagrees with some of its points, as I do, it offers plenty to mull over. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Zwigoff's angry expose of this intense, tiny subculture isn't fair to anyone in the art world, but if you can stomach the overstatement, it's often scathingly funny. And it's sometimes scathingly smart. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Zwigoff captures quite well the backstab aspects of this world, its rampant phoney baloneyness. But his funk doesn't allow him to capture something far more enticing: the power of true artistry. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: There's not a single person to like in Art School Confidential, a crucial mistake in a movie filled with mean, shallow and self-absorbed characters. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Whether the joke's meant to be on us or on the storytellers, I'm not buying the punchline. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: What keeps the film from being altogether snide and smug are the well-intentioned performances. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Simply runs out of things to do once it establishes its ground rules of defining stereotypes and mocking pretension. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: [The film] is at once an awkward coming-of-age story, a scabrous take-down of art-world hypocrisy, and even a murder mystery in which a serial strangler preys on Strathmore's nascent aesthetes. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Possibly there has never been a movie about the art world that's as much of an eyesore as the coming-of-age oddity Art School Confidential. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Every teacher is a burn-out, every student is a fraud and experimental artists are the worst burn-outs and frauds of all. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: There are two movies vying to occupy the same space here: a teen comedy about artistic pretension and academic double standards, and a darker, nastier movie about a serial killer. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes plod through a grouchy attack on and example of the pretense and hypocrisy of self-declared artists. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: A movie with the odd, tired joke about art and artists, a college romance that isn't romantic, and a plot twist that doesn't twist at all. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Art School Confidential shows the kind of backbone needed by limp parodies like Thank You for Smoking and American Dreamz. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: There is something in the Zwigoffian universe that values such characters [as Jimmy]; having abandoned all illusions, they offer the possibility of truth. I also much enjoyed Broadway Bob. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: The film loses its way with multiple subplots, becoming a hodgepodge that isn't particularly hard to follow, but, far worse, provides no compelling reason to bother. Read more

Josh Levin, Slate: The movie accomplishes the simple-enough task of demonstrating that art school types are pretentious and self-centered. What it fails to reveal is why anyone should care. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's a ruckus, veering from one picaresque episode to the next in its eagerness to debunk Hollywood cliches and art world stereotypes, but I prefer untidy novelty to paint-by-numbers storytelling any day. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Is it satiric? Is it sincere? Go figure, but know this for sure: There's nothing confident about Art School Confidential. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: In handing such a major role to such an untested actor (he's the son of film director Anthony Minghella), Zwigoff takes a risk that ultimately doesn't pay off. Read more

David Rooney, Variety: [The film] feels insubstantial, echoing without equaling both the coolly ironic edge and heart of Ghost World. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Art School Confidential is replete with humorous detail -- in that respect, the student art projects are particularly fine -- but it's the attitude that rules. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Enjoyable and reprises the same dyspeptic attitude that infused Ghost World, but ultimately it lacks its predecessor's originality and humanity. Read more