Terry Zwigoff, Art School Confidential

As a director, Terry Zwigoff, whose new film is the satiric Art School Confidential, has an undeniably solid scorecard. Three years ago with Billy Bob Thornton as Bad Santa, Zwigoff made the ultimate anti-holiday holiday movie. Zwigoff's 2001 Ghost World, written by underground comic artist Dan Clowes (who also wrote Art School), was a mainstay of many critics' Ten Best lists. His breakthrough 1994 documentary, Crumb, about underground comix artist Robert Crumb, remains the definitive look at an artist and his dysfunctional family. For Art School Confidential, a relaxed Zwigoff got confidential about casting unknown Max Minghella as his lead, Sophia Myles' issues about nudity and John Malkovich's teasing demands that, as director, Zwigoff actually direct.

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