'Art School Confidential': Offbeat satire with loopy characters

Misfits seem to be the territory of choice for director Terry Zwigoff (Crumb, Ghost World), and there are plenty of them at Strathmore Academy, the curious training ground for future Picassos in Art School Confidential.

From the film's opening shot, in which a young Jerome Platz is on the receiving end of a knuckle sandwich from a playground bully, through to his grown-up self (Max Minghella) being similarly pummeled by the New York art Establishment, this is a dark satire of the empty affectations of art education. As in his other films, subtlety is not a high priority for Zwigoff, but he understands how to convey a comic-book tone with his actors.

Sony Pictures Classics 'Art School Confidential' B The verdict: An offbeat send-up of art education, crossed with a coming-of-age romance and a serial killer yarn. Director: Terry Zwigoff Starring: Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Matt Keeslar Run time: 102 minutes Release date: May 5, 2006 Rating: R for language including sexual references, nudity and a scene of violence. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Art School Confidential'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

In fact, Art School Confidential began as a four-page comic by his screenwriter Daniel Clowes (Ghost World), whose success in films has apparently not eased his bitterness over his art school days.

Jerome, who chose Strathmore chiefly because of a photo of a nude model in the school's catalog, rooms with two of the dorm's more extreme geeks — an overbearing filmmaker (Ethan Suplee) and an effeminate fashion-design major — who find him equally odd.

Beyond making fun of the curious types drawn to the pretensions of Strathmore, Art School Confidential also kids such easy targets as inept teachers who are failed artists, the politics of landing a one-man show and, naturally, the empty-headed opinions of art critics.

Slowly, the film inches toward a narrative plot, as Jerome meets the catalog girl of his dreams, a famous artist's daughter named Audrey (Sophia Myles of Tristan & Isolde), who inexplicably takes an interest in him. Then Jerome gets locked in competition with a seemingly talentless lunkhead named Jonah (Matt Keeslar), both for the class artist honors and for Audrey.

The film grows even loopier when these story lines dovetail with a subplot about a killer — the so-called Strathmore Strangler — on the loose in the campus neighborhood.

Minghella's performance is not much different from his work as the awkward son in Bee Season, but his grimaces fit the unease of Jerome well.

John Malkovich, who also produced Art School Confidential, is aptly unctuous as Jerome's self-absorbed drawing-class teacher. Perhaps he did the arm-twisting, but the movie benefits from a string of attention-getting supporting cast members, including Anjelica Huston as a world-weary faculty member, Jim Broadbent as a slovenly, jaded Strathmore graduate and Steve Buscemi as Broadway Bob, a belligerent — isn't he always? — owner of a cafe-cum-gallery known for turning unknown painters into stars.

Zwigoff has never been a filmmaker interested in tidiness, and here he has a subject for which his lax pacing and tone seem well-suited.

Art School Confidential may not have set out to please everyone, and it probably will not. Still, its view of the art world is likely to appeal to those on the inside as well as those who suspect it is as ridiculous as depicted here.