Art School Confidential - Directed by Terry Zwigoff
Okay, so I'd HEARD of the movie before and remember a moderate ad campaign back when I was in high school for this film. No recollection of how big a success it was, or if there was a huge buzz about it with the young people. But after having my own art school experience with Pratt last year, I decided maybe it would be good for a laugh.
It never ranked high on my list of "must sees" and frankly, in my head, I always assumed it some raunchy, young adult, late teens early twenties party movie with ignorant young people living their "devil may care" years in the fashionable way; wasting time with partying and disrespecting authority because we're just way too cool for this. You know, that lifestyle that Hollywood keeps trying to tell me SHOULD appeal to me for some reason, that bratty little phase we're all supposed to go through and come out on the other side with nothing but awkward misadventures and cringeworthy anecdotes. Y'know, normal people stuff... Good thing I didn't waste my twenties with hard work, discipline and study, that would have been ridiculous.
So I was surprised to say that the film actually did have an intellectual backbone to it. The story
was well executed, and the perspective on art school, and the people one encounters there, both between the teachers and students was remarkably accurate.
Whenever Hollywood tries to approximate our lives, and create a scripted, on screen scenario that mimics how we live in our actual day-to-day, it is usually very cheesy and superficial, so I jumped into this one with a critical eye, wondering if it would remind me of being an undergraduate art major at Sacramento State, or of my brief time as a graduate student at Pratt.
I couldn't believe how vindicated I felt while watching those scenes. So it's not just my imagination, these people come off that way to everyone. Or at least, enough of us who attend that they might make a movie out of this and have it gain a reputation.
On the bonus features, the writer of the script (Daniel Clowes) mentions that he went to art school back in the late '70s early '80s era, and quote: "Didn't learn much about art, but got a lot of great stories to tell." Which made me chuckle and smile, then he continued by saying: "I think that art school was for me what Vietnam was to Oliver Stone." And that did make me laugh out loud.
The director, Terry Zwigoff, also struck me as a confident storyteller in his own language. He told it from a "real-world" perspective. A straight-forward, working man's interpretation of this environment where overgrown babies with wealthy parents are able to get lost in their little imaginary baby worlds and receive validation from each other, and grow greatly upset at any real-world criticism from an actual adult.
Yup. Art school.
All of the cliche student types that get listed are so on-the-nose perfect, I felt like I knew the guy writing this personally. It's also funny to think that to someone else I went to school with, I may have been one of those cliches for them. Hah.
I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but I watched the DVD twice in the time I'd rented it from this little independent DVD rental store I go to. I loved it and hated it at the same time. I loved the way I hated it and hated the way I loved it.
It never ranked high on my list of "must sees" and frankly, in my head, I always assumed it some raunchy, young adult, late teens early twenties party movie with ignorant young people living their "devil may care" years in the fashionable way; wasting time with partying and disrespecting authority because we're just way too cool for this. You know, that lifestyle that Hollywood keeps trying to tell me SHOULD appeal to me for some reason, that bratty little phase we're all supposed to go through and come out on the other side with nothing but awkward misadventures and cringeworthy anecdotes. Y'know, normal people stuff... Good thing I didn't waste my twenties with hard work, discipline and study, that would have been ridiculous.
So I was surprised to say that the film actually did have an intellectual backbone to it. The storywas well executed, and the perspective on art school, and the people one encounters there, both between the teachers and students was remarkably accurate.
Whenever Hollywood tries to approximate our lives, and create a scripted, on screen scenario that mimics how we live in our actual day-to-day, it is usually very cheesy and superficial, so I jumped into this one with a critical eye, wondering if it would remind me of being an undergraduate art major at Sacramento State, or of my brief time as a graduate student at Pratt.
I couldn't believe how vindicated I felt while watching those scenes. So it's not just my imagination, these people come off that way to everyone. Or at least, enough of us who attend that they might make a movie out of this and have it gain a reputation.
On the bonus features, the writer of the script (Daniel Clowes) mentions that he went to art school back in the late '70s early '80s era, and quote: "Didn't learn much about art, but got a lot of great stories to tell." Which made me chuckle and smile, then he continued by saying: "I think that art school was for me what Vietnam was to Oliver Stone." And that did make me laugh out loud.
The director, Terry Zwigoff, also struck me as a confident storyteller in his own language. He told it from a "real-world" perspective. A straight-forward, working man's interpretation of this environment where overgrown babies with wealthy parents are able to get lost in their little imaginary baby worlds and receive validation from each other, and grow greatly upset at any real-world criticism from an actual adult.
Yup. Art school.
All of the cliche student types that get listed are so on-the-nose perfect, I felt like I knew the guy writing this personally. It's also funny to think that to someone else I went to school with, I may have been one of those cliches for them. Hah.
I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but I watched the DVD twice in the time I'd rented it from this little independent DVD rental store I go to. I loved it and hated it at the same time. I loved the way I hated it and hated the way I loved it.
