Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes (Ghost World) reunite for a bitterly hilarious satire, based on Clowes' own comic about an idealistic student's rude awakening. Max Minghella stars as a talented and ambitious artist whose dreams of becoming the world's next Picasso are dashed by the pretentious, insular atmospshere of the smug East Coast art school he attends. John Malkovich, Anjelica Huston, and Sophia Myles co-star. "Curiously, [the film's] relentlessly cynical tone turns out sounding refreshingly original compared to the usual pieties in the genre" (Andrew Sarris, New York Observer).