Line #18 ComicBook/ArtSchoolConfidential


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Art_School_Confidential.jpg]]
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3	''Art School Confidential'' began life as a four-page black-and-white comic by Daniel Clowes for his AnthologyComic, ''ComicBook/{{Eightball}}''. It became very popular first among Clowes' friends and then with other former college art students. It inspired a 2006 film of the same name directed by Creator/TerryZwigoff (who'd previously adapted Clowes's ''ComicBook/GhostWorld'' for the screen).
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5	In the movie, Jerome (Creator/MaxMinghella) has idolized Picasso from a very young age and wants to be a famous artist (possibly just so he can meet girls). When he gets to Strathmore College, he very becomes very disappointed with the state of affairs, surrounded by incomprehensible art, crazy students, an even crazier alumni, and teachers who really don't care. He becomes increasingly bitter and alienates everyone around him.
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7	----
8	!!Tropes:
9	* AggressiveCategorism: Bardo invokes this on Jerome's first day by pointing out exactly what stereotype each student falls into, including himself as "The Guy Who Keeps Dropping Out Because He's Too Afraid To Try Anything New."
10	* AgonyOfTheFeet: During the opening credits, a barefoot hippie girl steps on a broken beer bottle left on the floor.
11	* AintTooProudToBeg: Jerome ''literally'' gets on his hands an knees and begs the curator of an exhibit to allow him to attend just so he can see Audrey. The curator complies by letting him work the bar.
12	* BlackAndGreyMorality: With the exception of Audrey and one girl in Jerome's high school he draws a portrait of, there isn't a single character in the film who isn't selfish, narcissistic or hostile. Even Jerome seems to at least partially want to become an artist to meet girls.
13	* BittersweetEnding: Jerome [[spoiler: finally becomes a famous and well-respected artist]], but only because [[spoiler: he's in jail for a crime he didn't commit and [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity his peers are desperate to protest anything]]]] and can't leave, or else he'll see a steep decline in popularity. At least [[spoiler:he and Audrey get together]].
14	* ButtMonkey: The movie makes a grand effort to see how much it can make Jerome's life a living hell: his artistic talents get him beaten up as a child and taken advantage of as a teen. It's also implied that his family are secretly ashamed of him because they assume that he's Gay. He spends a majority of the film having his passion and love for art destroyed by [[SmallNameBigEgo pretentious students]], apathetic professors, alumni who tell him he's wasting his time and successful artists who treat him like a pest. Worst of all, he's repeatedly shown up by the the most mediocre student in the class, [[spoiler: who isn't even a student, but an undercover cop]]. And at his lowest point, he's [[spoiler: arrested for a crime he had nothing to do with, in the middle of [[DrivenToSuicide a suicide attempt, no less!]]]].
15	* CantTakeCriticism: The pretentious students that Jerome has to attend class with. When they all praise the work of one named Flower, whose self portrait looks like it was done by a child with no idea of what she even looks like, he's the only one to call out how rushed and lame it is. Flower breaks down in tears as the rest of the class call him out for it. One of them criticizes his own work, though Jerome's rejection is justified as he spent hours on it, only to be mocked as something made by a machine.
16	* EatingLunchAlone
17	* EruditeStoner: Bardo
18	* HippieTeacher
19	* HumansAreFlawed: By Jerome during a critique when a girl's drawing is referred to as "human". It really didn't help that hers looked like it had been done by a disinterested three-year-old, while a realistic self-portrait he slaved over was criticized as being a valueless piece of shit that looked like it had been made by a machine.
20	* JerkAssHasAPoint: Jerome goes to the photography exhibit of an obnoxious female classmate but only because he wants to learn the name of the model in the photos. You can't really blame the classmate for calling him as asshole, especially since Jerome mainly sees art as a way to get into the pants of pretty girls.
21	* JerkJock:
22	** Subverted. Jonah is out of place at art school, but is popular for being a cool guy, and a decent artist. [[spoiler:Too bad he's a cop.]]
23	** [[spoiler:Played straighter with some of his colleagues, though - they can't seem to follow why he takes his assignments so seriously when it's just a cover. Um, maybe because he's trying to maintain said cover?]]
24	* KafkaComedy: The filmmakers' tongues were ''firmly'' in their cheeks.
25	* KickTheDog: Jerome's [[spoiler: suicide attempt is ruined when he gets arrested for a crime he didn't commit]].
26	* MadArtist: Jimmy.
27	* MeaningfulName: Strathmore College is named after an art supply company of the same name, who provided the production with sketchbooks.
28	* MyGirlIsNotASlut: Jerome is desperate to meet cute girls once he gets to college, but only someone he's in love with.
29	* NoSmoking: Don't smoke in Jimmy's apartment.
30	* OnlySaneMan: Jerome is the only one in his class who realizes how pretentious and meaningless (see: lazy) his peers' artwork is. He also seems to be, with the exception of Jimmy, the only artist shown who can ''actually draw!''
31	* RefugeInAudacity: The police aren't popular at Strathmore because they arrested a student for having paintings that say things like "Legalize Genocide".
32	* SmallNameBigEgo: It's easier to list the characters who ''aren't''.
33	* TrailersAlwaysLie: The movie was billed as a comedy, but it exhausts its entire supply of jokes (almost all of them lifted directly from the comic) within the first half hour or so (all within one scene, really) and spends the rest of the movie trying to do this really tense MindScrew thing as Jerome continually manages to inadvertently engineer the circumstances under which he [[spoiler:gets convicted of the murders Jimmy's been committing. The end of the movie tries to get back to comedy in the end credits, where his former classmates claim in interviews that their scoffing was just being blind to the truth, and now that he's a murderer they realize Jerome is an artistic genius.]]
34	* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: A running gag in the movie is how the most banal and thoughtless junk receives nothing but praise while Jerome, the only artist whose work seems to follow any kind of fundamental technique, is criticized for drawing "like a machine." Similarly, every time Jerome gives his opinion on a certain work, whether or not he wants to, his response is almost always criticized as naïve and uninformed.
35	* TheUnfavorite: Not explicitly shown, but it's implied that Jerome's parents are none-too-happy about his career choice.

Context ComicBook / ArtSchoolConfidential