Art School Confidential

Caveat: I have a deep suspicion that if you did not attend a Visual Arts school, or perhaps at least a school of one of the Arts, this one is going to leave you confused, irritated, or apathetic. It's definitely an "insider" film. That said, the first 75% is deadly accurate on the pretentious, hopeful, pseudo-intellectual, hot house environment of training in the Arts, complete with student politics, faculty politics, administrative politics, art scene and art business politics, and any other politic you can throw in. It's "hip" deep in its own bullshit. I began to lose interest when I caught on we were heading out of the Arts theme and into a Murder/detective theme. At this point, the story loses what I found witty and insightful, pursues the murder angle, and in an overstated, clichéd manner, tries to wrap the two themes together in a final irony. Perhaps these things would be entertaining or even eye opening for those who DIDN'T attend an Art school, but for me, it was enough to stick with the in-house world of young college students trying to find their way into their personal illusions about what the art world could and would offer them.