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Before watching this film, open a bottle a wine, load a gun and tie up a noose and make sure your beams will hold your weight, 'cause this is a doozy! I half expected the film to end with a title card, saying: 'And then he died of cholera.' I am also surprised they haven't used REM's 'Everybody Hurts' at least once. I'm sure they wanted to, though.

I get it that life sucks, but shit: I know this, I don't need to spend 90 minutes looking at how life sucks for other people!
Because it does. This is all about under-appreciated teachers, angry kids, teenage hookers, sad kid hookers, angry hooking kids, dying grandfathers, fat kids who are misunderstood and who got so much talent, etc, etc, etc. (to be fair, all the hooker/kid/angry involve the same character. But still.)
So this is pretty much a long episode of 'Glee,' without the songs.

It's shot as a documentary, and especially towards the beginning it works, because you wonder if the people you see (meaning: the people you've never seen before) are actors or not, so it has a bit of a documentary feeling to it.
It also manages to show how fucked up the US 'education' system is, how people who care are not respected, how teachers get depressed and end up saying: 'Fuck that motherfucking shit.' And who can blame them?
It's about how human contact, in a completely non-sexual way, just in a fucking HUMAN way is 'inappropriate.' And when I say this I'm not talking about the teenager blowing old men in the bus, but the teacher hugging a student who really needs a fucking hug.

So people need to be more in touch with their feelings, but if you try to comfort someone, you're branded a pervert.

America: How I hate thy perverse hypocrisy.

But, on a (not so) lighter note: I liked the scene where some government sleaze-ball talks about getting better scores in order to raise the property value. That's as American as apple pie and high-school shootings. And who better to play this sleaze-ball than Mr Clay 'sheeeeeeeit' Davis himself (he's starting to become a regular on this here blog!)

I was surprised by the cast. I like Brody, but at some point his 'beat up puppy' look gets slightly tiring. Even when he's smiling, you feel like his heart is bleeding. Adrian: take a chill pill, watch an episode of 'Ren and Stimpy' or something.

When he starts talking to the camera, you're wondering who he's talking to. The cops or who? But, no, it turns out it's just a gimmick with no purpose. Oh, well.

However (look, ma: I'm using linkers!), I was floored by Bryan Cranston who, in about 2 minutes, probably less, manages to look sleazier, more evil and more repulsive than anyone in the film and anyone I've seen in a long, long, time. And I'm saying this after having watched 'The Departed' a couple of days ago, for the 10th time. A film that doesn't have a whole lot of friendly folks. Well, Cranston seems more malevolent and pernicious than any of the people in the Scorsese film. In under 2 minutes.

Then there's James Caan, who plays the cool dude who doesn't give a fuck, and he's awesome.
Then there's Tim Blake Nelson as the guy who's on the verge of a major collapse, and he's awesome. I kept expecting him to kill a student or himself. The fact that that doesn't happen is good.
Then there's Marcia Gay Harden who's sad and tough and great, as always (always great, I meant. Not that she's always sad and tough. Although, she kinda is...)
Then there's Lucy Liu, who I am sure is awesome. But it's Lucy Liu, my hormones work double time when I see her and I'm biased.

I also really enjoyed the animations, which were completely pointless, but quite nice.

So: the acting is great, sometimes even tremendous, because some lines are really quite corny, but the actors are able to deliver them convincingly.
The directing tries a little too hard to be 'gritty.' And the writing, well... The writer's heart is in the right place, but it feels a bit too much like "Oh, boy, oh boy, oh boy! We're gonna get an Oscar for sure!" Because it's just so fucking depressing all the time! All you needed was a crippled kid and then, well... It would be Oscar worthy. And even more like 'Glee.'

I criticized some of the cheesy lines, but there also some good lines, and I am so not at all like those teachers in any way, but I could kinda relate to them facing students being pricks. But Brody lecturing on 'doublethink?' Yeah, no. In the real world, he'd have been arrested, branded a communist and sent to Guantanamo.
Because life is 'Dirty Dancing.' The USA is Jennifer Gray. And nobody puts baby in a corner.

Also, I know that to show that it's a flashback from way back then, you have to change the film stock and make it look like it was shot on Super 8. But in this case it's just creepy because it looks like it was actually shot on Super 8. As in:
"Oh, wow. Your mom just OD'd on pills. Let me get that with my new camera. Damn, look at those tits! Okay, now let's cut to you: how do you feel? Yeah, great! You look sad! Are you sad? Yeah, probably, 'cause your mom's dead in front of you. Well... Shit, son, I don't know: Look at her tits! Now don't mind me I'm gonna keep filming close ups of you until the paramedics arrive. This will come in handy when you're gonna have to talk about your trauma as an adult, while pretending to smoke, trust me. It's gonna be a "show don't tell kinda thing." Don't cry, you pussy! Or I'll make sure you end up with your mom!'

But maybe I'm the only one who thought that.

In the end, I'm not sure who this film is for. Could be for students so they see that other students are also struggling and that teachers are humans, too.
Or it could be for teachers, saying: well, students are not always horrible and they are humans, too.
Or for people who are thinking about becoming teachers: For the love of God, don't do it! To quote 'The Departed': "The world needs plenty of bartenders!" (plus you can drink, you get to talk to women who are not under-aged and you don't have to work mornings!)

I know you're not gonna believe me, and this is a major spoiler, but get this: at first, the students don't respect him. And then, wow: they love him and they're sad that he has to go! This is pretty original. No? Yes? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?

At least, surprisingly, it doesn't end in a totally expected suicide.

Oh, wait. It totally does.