fasstrack Posted August 26, 2012 Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 (edited) I'm in Southern Fla. w/lots of time to kill, so I scooped up a bunch of DVDs from the library. Never heard of it or any of the principals-but I found it quite good. I won't give away the plot, just to say a young kid in art school goes to extremes to get both the girl and a kind of fame. It resonated personally b/c it spoke to a lot of my own jealousies and less appealing feelings re the music-jazz world. Everyone wants 'recognition', it takes a lot of will sometimes to say 'fuck you' to that and other stupid and flow-breaking distractions from the process, not to mention the effect of one's work on its viewers, listeners, etc. With young, sensitive people, like in the film, everything is magnified-especially one's self-importance-and the sense of drama that comes with that. Though meant as a dark comedy I actually found the young man's machinations plausible in real-life, and for many professions, etc. Society (ours, anyway) puts such a premium-and pressure to attain 'success'. Edited August 26, 2012 by fasstrack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted August 26, 2012 Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 Yes, I'll give that one a look. Director Terry Zwigoff made Ghost World, Crumb and Bad Santa, all of which were really good movies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fasstrack Posted August 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 Yes, I'll give that one a look. Director Terry Zwigoff made Ghost World, Crumb and Bad Santa, all of which were really good movies. Crumb, about R. Crumb? That figures. I loved that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted August 26, 2012 Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 The only Zwigoff movie I haven't seen has another congenial subject, but sadly it's not available here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089507/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fasstrack Posted August 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 The only Zwigoff movie I haven't seen has another congenial subject, but sadly it's not available here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089507/ This gets better with each layer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Brown Posted August 26, 2012 Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 Art School Confidential was based on comics written and drawn by Daniel Clowes who also wrote the screenplay for Terry Zwigoff's film. Earlier, the two men collaborated on Ghost World, which is also based on Clowes's comics. If you enjoyed Art School Confidential you should certainly check out Ghost World. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjzee Posted August 26, 2012 Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 Ghost World is an amazing movie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fasstrack Posted August 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2012 Yes, Don, I will. Thanks for the info. Seems like I saw that Clowes guy interviewed on a NYT cable show. Maybe it was someone else but the obsequeousness ass-kissing of the host and smug self-importance of the guest were a bit much-so I tuned away. That's got nothing to do w/talent, though-assuming that it was in fact Clowes. Everyone connected with this movie has a world of talent, and every artist I've admired wasn't a saint... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thirdtry Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 'Louie Bluie' is an absolutely amazing film. Owned it on VHS and picked up the Criterion Collection version the day it came out. http://www.criterion.com/films/27509-louie-bluie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 Ghost World is an amazing movie. Definitely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crisp Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 Another fan of Ghost World here. Scarlett Johanssen's performance as the main character's friend was a revelation -- until then I had no idea she was that good an actress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjzee Posted August 27, 2012 Report Share Posted August 27, 2012 Another fan of Ghost World here. Scarlett Johanssen's performance as the main character's friend was a revelation -- until then I had no idea she was that good an actress. Agreed...Thora Birch, Steve Buscemi, all amazing. I also often think about the philosophical point of the movie, that many live in a "ghost world" where they don't really understand the motivations and goals followed by most of society. I love the scene where Thora is being offered a scholarship to art school, and she asks "does that mean I'll have to study and stuff?" She just truly doesn't get it. But the Skip James track spoke instantly to her. It was also wonderful to see the Thora and Scarlett characters sharing a worldview at the beginning of the movie but (spoiler alert) during the course of the movie Scarlett somehow moves to the other side. It was shocking and revelatory to see the divide between them. This movie articulates a vision I haven't seen in another movie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted August 28, 2012 Report Share Posted August 28, 2012 I happened to catch most of "Ghost World" on cable just a few days ago. Such a good movie. I hadn't seen it again since it was out in the theaters. Whatever happened to Thora Birch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted August 28, 2012 Report Share Posted August 28, 2012 Whatever happened to Thora Birch? It appears she ended up in TV movie hell. A shame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fasstrack Posted August 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2012 I guess I'll look into Ghost World. There's a wonderful library where I'm staying for only one more day in W. Palm Beach. Don't know if they have it. Next chance would be one of the 'art houses' in NY like the Film Forum or Angelika-where these films pop up in retrospectives. Don't have a DVD player and don't have (and don't want) a TV. Much better on the big screen anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david weiss Posted August 28, 2012 Report Share Posted August 28, 2012 Louie Bluie was actually on Showtime tonight and I caught the last half of it. It's a lot of fun. It certainly would help to be a bigger fan of that music then I am but the main subject is a fun character so it holds your interest. I found Ghost World to be a much better film then Art School Confidential. Actually I didn't find Art School Confidential to be a very good movie at all though I did appreciate the sentiment behind it and much of it did ring true to me. I assume the art school in question was based on Cal Arts (as was the Art school in Six Feet Under) where I went to school for a year to study photography before I discovered my true calling as a musician and transferred out of there. As I said, I identified with a lot of it and there was hardly a false note but overall it just wasn't a very good movie to me. I love dark humor but where Ghost World's characters had heart and soul the ones in Art School Confidential do not and while that is probably the point, Zwigoff just couldn't really pull it off on this one..... Now Bad Santa is hilarious....if any of you haven't seen it, you really should...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fasstrack Posted August 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2012 Dav-e-lah! If you remember all the locations in Art Sch...are in NY-Spring St. subway stop, etc. Maybe the model was Visual Arts. Just a guess. Can't agree the characters are shallow though. The girl being chased has a change of heart and falls for the boy student before he takes it out for her. OK, admittedly she's a pushover for his portrait of her-and that's a bit shallow. But she also dumps the Aryan hunk (OK, so it's after his couer is blown) and goes with the kid. This was the sweet part for me: how many no-talent, no-soul types but w/looks get the girl, glory, fame-in stories and life? And this kid was willing to take a bum rap to get her, plus the infamy gained-but mostly to beat the Nazi. Even he has a vulnerable moment taking him to jail when he asks the kid in earnest 'were my paintings good at all?' the film reminded me of themes in Crimes and Misdemeanors-esp. the dynamic betwn the Allen and Alda characters. Success or loser-we're judged one or the other in society. Makes one do strange things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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