Art School Confidential

A bizarre movie from director Terry Zwigoff, maker of Ghost World and Bad Santa. Max Minghella plays Gerome, a wannabe artist attending art school, where a serial killer has been offing the occasional townie. The film starts out very funny and then drifts into bitter and dark territory as the serial killer subplot takes over. It has a rather sinister outlook toward artist types, and those brandishing brushes and pastels could wind up a little insulted. In a great speech, a visiting artist tells the students either you are an artist, or you are not, and no amount of studying and practice is going to change that. John Malkovich is extremely funny as a teacher who specializes in painting triangles. Jim Broadbent gets laughs as an angry artist who never found his niche. Zwigoff is a master of dark comedy, something this film prominently displays.