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Review:
 You
write what you know, and Daniel Clowes, the last of the big
underground cartoonists, went to art school in the late 1970s, He
knows the pretentiousness of art and it's establishment.
Jerome Platz (Max Minghella) has talent. He's good enough to go to
art school, and winds up at the prestigious Strathmore academy,
which is probably a copy of the prestigious Pratt institute (being
a grad it looks and feels exactly like it). Here he finds that art
of bullshit to be supreme in this petty little world.
While taking Professor Sandford's drawing class, he comes upon
Audrey (Sophia Myles), the girl of his dreams, who's working as a
model. He's totally smitten, but she's going for Jonah (Matt
Keeslar), a jock with little or no artistic talent. Soon everybody
loves Jonah's artwork, and this makes Jerome furious. He gets some
solise from his pal Bardo(Joel David Moore) a cynic who introduces
him to aa failed artist named Jimmy(Jim Broadbent), who teaches
him the true meaning of art and the art world. It isn't very
pretty. Where talent and hard work don't work cheating might.
There's also a subplot about a serial killer which isn't
particularly interesting, but this is a cartoon movie, and the
problem here is that there's not enough of anything. The film has
to go to far, and for the most part it doesn't go near much less
anywhere far or even too far. .
I like Dan Clowes, but this wasn't one of his better commix, and
the film isn't one of Zwigof's better either. If you want to see
something good in this genre see “Ghost World.
Eric Lurio
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