Art School Confidential (2006)

Art School Confidential: Directed by Terry Zwigoff. With Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent. Starting from childhood attempts at illustration, the protagonist pursues his true obsession to art school. But as he learns how the art world really works, he finds that he must adapt his vision to the reality that confronts him.

“The beginning of this movie was hilarious. Jerome goes to art school and meets zany characters, including his gay roommate, his wannabe filmmaker roommate, and his art teacher (played by John Malkovich). The dialogue was witty. The audience loved the satire of modern art, because we all know how ridiculous modern art can be yet we must be polite and insightful when looking at it. Everyone could relate to the perverted college humor. Unfortunately, all this silliness ended. Right in the middle, the movie took a turn of tone and with it took the refreshingly simple but fun plot.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eArt School Confidential suddenly became serious about its characters, including the mysterious strangler. The decision to transform the movie into a serious mystery was itu0026#39;s major flaw. With this move, the writers felt they had to incorporate a more confusing plot to achieve a mysterious tone. By the end, the initial idea of simply amusing the audience was lost because of the poorly-crafted mystery, leaving the audience disappointed.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhy do filmmakers do this? They think because we have paid to see an indie movie, we want an obscure plot twist topped off with an unresolved ending. Itu0026#39;s like having ice cream, fun and simple, then someone comes over and adds a twist of lime and tops it off with crab apples! Obscure, but no fun because it tastes weird and you were content with the ice cream by itself. I recommend the first hour of this movie.”