Back in 2006, Sony
Pictures Classics took director Terry Zwigoff’s Art School Confidential
out theatrically as an arthouse film entry.
It was a limited run, which quickly evaporated and that was that for Art
School Confidential and the filmmaker who brought us the
Oscar-nominated Ghost World (Best Adapted Screenplay), the hit-comedy Bad
Santa and the wildly original Crumb documentary.
In retrospect the studio
couldn’t quite figure out what they had.
Arthouse entry? Black
comedy? Or, something else?
It’s no problem for MVD
Entertainment Group as Zwigoff’s film oddity fits perfectly into the company’s
successful Marquee Collection promotional Blu-ray line of products. Marquee Collection indeed on Oct. 9!
Jerome (Max Minghella —
as Nick in The Handmaid's Tale cable series, plus such films as The
Internship, The Social Network, The Ides of March, etc.) is a
technically proficient artist who lacks a formal education. So he enrolls at Strathmore to get the
education and the validation.
It is a place of
eccentrics, including a professor (John Malkovich) who hasn’t moved beyond his
“triangle” period, an art history teacher (Anjelica Huston) with an odd
perspective on dead white artists and a failed artist by the name of Jimmy (Jim
Broadbent) who knows art, but loves the bottle.
His friends include the
outcast “Bardo” (Joel David Moore) and a roommate by the name of Vince (Ethan
Suplee), who fancies himself a cutting edge filmmaker. And then there’s Audrey (Sophia Myles — Underworld,
Underworld: Evolution, Transformers: Age of Extinction, etc.), a model,
who Jerome quickly becomes enamored with.
Oh yes, and there is one
other whacky element at this art college, the Strathmore Strangler … a serial
killer who prefers his victims to be subjects of Jimmy’s paintings.
Jerome gets an education
— he’s a quick study. Being famous is
about being famous (think: Kardashian), which is the point of Zwigoff’s
film. Our hero becomes a famous artist
for something he didn’t do, but he is perfectly happy to claim credit for
it. He was all he wanted out of life, to
be famous.
Vince, Jerome’s roommate,
also becomes famous for making a documentary about the Strathmore
Strangler. Of course Vince got all of
the details wrong, but he’s now a famous filmmaker, so details really don’t
matter. And, Jerome ends up with the
girl of his dreams, even though circumstances prevent him from the enjoyments
of that relationship.
Arthouse? Black comedy … as they say, beauty is in the
eyes of the beholder!
Bonus goodies include a
blooper reel, deleted scenes, the “Sundance Featurette” and the “Making of Art
School Confidential” featurette.
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