Dir. Terry Zwigoff

Starring Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich etc.

Being someone who likes to draw, I was immediately attracted to this movie… seeing people do art is just something I enjoy. This movie though is not a true glimpse inside an art school but more of a satirical look and perhaps a bit of social commentary about the snobbery that can exist at some level in the artistic community.

As a child, while other boys liked to play football, Jerome (Max Minghella) liked to draw. When he goes off to art school, his parents worry that he may be gay, and his guy friends think it’s so cool that he wants to go there so he’ll get to draw naked chicks. Actually, neither is true. He simply thinks art is his calling and wants to be the very best artist of this century.

Jerome gets quite a revelation though, being good at drawing apparently doesn’t really matter. The worst works seem to garner the most approval, the teachers are blase and don’t really care anymore and to top it off there is a serial killer somewhere on campus!

Although the story goes a bit overboard and the mystery is not difficult to figure out, it’s funny and although tongue-in-cheek, does touch on the fact that some artists can have a better than thou attitude, can find ‘true art’ wherever they feel fit. I’ve seen toilets in museums, depicted as art. Yeah, yeah, you can say it’s a statement on life, art, people, politics.. the throne is still a crapper. People like to follow whatever is popular at the moment even if they look ridiculous in it.. or follow whever is considered cool even if they really are inane.

This is Her review, you can read His review here

Keywords: Art, Satire, Quirky