Written by: Susan Granger
www.susangranger.com

Idiosyncratic filmmaker Terry Zwigoff ("Bad Santa, "Ghost World," "Crumb") strikes a surprisingly sour note with this bitter, heavy-handed black comedy that lampoons the aesthetic pretentiousness of students and faculty at a thinly disguised Pratt Institute.

An aspiring Picasso from Long Island, nerdy Jerome Platz (Max Minghella, son of "Cold Mountain" director Anthony Minghella) enrolls at Strathmore Academy, a prestigious East Coast arts school, where - with the possible exception of a history teacher (Anjelica Huston) - he's exposed to a plethora of elitist phonies.

Pedantic life-drawing Professor Sandiford (John Malkovich) goads the hapless 18 year-old virgin into criticizing the work of a classmate during an open discussion, which immediately makes him as a pariah, particularly when compared with an ambiguous, clean-cut classmate (Matt Keeslar), who catches the eye of Jerome's dream girl (Sophia Myles from "Tristan & Isolde"), a nude model. Then there's his ill-fated friendship with a dissolute, drunken misanthrope (Jim Broadbent) whose outrage at hypocrisy knows no bounds and encounter with a status-conscious restaurateur (Steve Buscemi).

Screenwriter and graphic novelist Daniel Clowes' ("Ghost World") script meanders, touching on the idealism of "art for art's sake" but dwelling primarily on ego-driven personalities who are after fame and fortune. Plus there's a mystery crime-drama plot element involving a campus serial killer, the Strathmore Strangler. Not only is Jerome primarily passive but also the secondary characters are caricatures of stereotypes which substantially dilutes their validity.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Art School Confidential" is a sardonic, subversive 6, painting a nasty picture.