I've Been Let Down Again
Oh Hollywood, why do you take my favorite things, shove them in your mouth, and then after you've had your way with her toss some grotesque garbage not even resembling the original product out of your mechanical orifice?
Yes, I watched Art School Confidential this weekend. Yes, of course I love Daniel Clowes. Yes, I loved Ghost World and other flicks Zwigoff did (shut up - Bad Santa is funny). And yes, I've been waiting for months and months for this release because I am a big nerd for Mr. Clowes.
That being said, this movie was total crap.
First, the movie felt like a high school comedy flick. All the requisite elements were there: cute blond muse with pert breasts, the viriginal, misunderstood yet charming and handsome lead teen, the funny side-kick friend that is borderline perverse without being too disturbing, the suburban parents with the prissy sister, and the coming-of-age milestone of being dropped off at college for the first time.
Then, the movie suddenly took a dark turn with a sinister Jim Broadbent (Jimmy) playing confidant to a distraught, heartbroken Max Minghella (Jerome). With no one to turn to and no woman's breast pillow to rest his weary head on, he hits the bottom. Good thing for him, there is a prize at the bottom of this pity well, which moves us to the last of the Hollywood movie cliches...
Cue the birdies singing loop and the bright lights, for we've entered romantic comedy territory. You can come to your own conclusions here, for I strictly adhere to the no spoilers policy. I may have hated the movie, but I still want Daniel Clowes to have pockets lined in sweet, glorious cash.
POST-SCRIPT:
Dan Clowes, you still own my heart. I'm sorry you have co-producing credits on this heaping, steamy pile of proof that Hollywood is run by a bunch of dip shits. I am sympathetic that they were working with little source material and I am sure having you write the script was a great effort in preserving artistic intent. But there was nothing in this movie that I will associate with your genius.
posted by Serene Careaga @ 1:45 PM
2 Comments:
Agreed wholeheartedly that Clowes is a genius well deserving of our love, but agreed even moreso that movie just plain sucks! ... it was just all way too cynical to be funny or terribly entertaining, and that murder subplot was simply ridiculous
Ah, my take was that the main story was pure shit but the comedy moments felt like they were from a much funnier movie. I could care less about 80% of it. But when they were in "funny" mode they were doing pretty well. The problem for me wasn't that they were too cynical, I think they should could have gone into black comedy Heathers territory and left the two/three leads in minor roles. If it were nonstop hateful jokes for 2hrs - I would have loved it.
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