Film Reviews
Art School Confidential (2006)
Jerome graduates from high school and enrolls in Strathmore Art School. Picasso is his hero, and he intends to become "the greatest artist of the twenty-first century." Lucky for him, Bardo, who has flunked out and started over three times, takes him under his wing and disabuses him of his innocence. He's pegged every pretension of every classmate, and thus the side-splitting parodies begin. Here is the beautiful beatnik, he tells Jerome, over there is the vegan holy man, then the angry lesbian, the boring blowhard, the brown noser, the fifty-ish mom trying to find herself. "Oh wow!" exclaims Bardo, "another ironic pop culture reference!" The professors with their inflated egos and deep insecurities are even funnier, as are the classroom dramas when students critique each other's work and pontificate about "good art." Unfortunately, into this satire the directors insert a real plot when Jerome falls in love with the nude model Audrey, is upstaged by the hulk Jonah who is at Strathmore for reasons other than art, and then concocts a plan to win her back. He concludes, "I'm a living cliche just like the others."