A Teacher (2013)

Instant Favorite.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I am not sure where the bad reviews come from unless they are from people upset with the subject matter. It is Hollywood people get over it. If people voted on movies based on moral compass than many would get a 4/10.The Hot teacher thing is a double standard. This kid is a senior, 17+ which is the age of consent in many states. Let's not dwell on the possible criminal element of the movie. I don't know of any 17 year old horny males that would feel violated by a hot young female teacher. NONE. OK so enough of that.These 2 have a hot fling. Obviously if anyone finds out about it her career would be over. He seems mature for his age and I thought the acting was well done and these 2 actors did a great job of pretending to be into each other.Things start to go a little astray when she realizes she is really infatuated with this kid.I thought the film and story was beautiful and artistically well done. The dialogue was real and I understand much of it was improvised. It is short only about 1hr 15 min but it is worth a watch.

Firstly, ignore these stupid reviews: if your highest idea of film is a typical brainless Hollywood structure with the inciting incident, setback, climax and happy ending - as i suspect the reviewers so far hold - you will be disappointed. And good riddance. The less we have of this mindless, brainwashed notion that every film should conform to a 120-min clichéd set of min-by-min peaks and troughs, the better.It's only 75mins instead of 120mins? Boo hoo. It doesn't have a happy ending? Shut up. It doesn't have your stupid clichéd "plot" structure you get in every film? Waaah, waah, waah.If that's the basis of your criticism, it's not the writers to blame: it's you. You, the viewer, are an idiot.I experimented with this on Netflix as a wildcard watch, despite the cheap, smutty cover which does it a horrendous disservice. I was genuinely surprised and heartened by what i discovered in it. And you know it's done well when your chest hurts afterwards. The film is absolutely carried by Lindsay Burdge, who gives an unbelievably sincere, empathetic, moving, and sensitive performance: one of the best i've seen in years for an indie flick. I say that as someone who works in film every day, and who forwarded the piece on to a few people as a classic example of first-class artistry. The supporting cast are perfectly reasonable, although perhaps the male counterpart is slightly implausibly mature - it ultimately countermands the relationship to make it more sympathetic.The story is essentially of one woman's descent into obsession and madness, laced over a very tense and awkward contrasting ascent of tension and difficulty: it's touch-sensitive stuff, with a strange quality that does very much keep you involved with the heavy air of tension. I suspect the writer was tempted to tone it down; the Shakespearian touch would have done well here: a murder at the end of it, or some vile, terrifying conspiracy to really anchor it down. The sex scenes are erotic, tastefully filmed, and coarsely authentic.I'd compare the subtlety of it to "Notes on a Scandal" (2006) with Judi Dench: centred around an apparently harmless female lead, who sinks under the weight of her increasing needs and compulsions. If one theme emerges, it's the idea of loneliness: you can *feel* the loneliness of the character; coldly alone in her apartment, emotionally isolated, foolishly childish, and of course, hopelessly naive. It's not event-driven per se, and that's absolutely fine, no matter what the idiot i-want-bruce- willis-don't-make-me-think hoard says. It's a character-driven piece, and a refreshing internal look at an alternative side where the apparent sexual predator is the fool. We don't find out how it happened, why, or where it concluded, and we don't need to - it's showing us the world from her point of view, which is ambiguous, convoluted, and blinded.The sad point about a title like this is that the marketing and distribution people clearly dumped it, and it may unjustifiably disappear into the ether. It needs a better cover, maybe an HBO slot, a different sales angle, and a more agreeable pickup team.If you're one of those idiots who watch something like this and whinge that it's not a usual, familiar Hollywood-style happy-ended turd, please do the rest of the world a favor and just throw yourself off a bridge. Stick to comic book movies and stuff about jaded ex-law enforcement types killing TheTerrorists (TM). You're the reason interesting little pieces like this drop down the list, when they should be moving upwards on it.

The production company, the screenwriter and anybody else who approved this meaningless piece of garbage should be barred from the movie industry. I am that serious! This is beyond ridiculous. Very few movies made me angry this much I am warning you, do not watch this movie if you don't want to feel sorry for wasting 90 minutes of your life when the movie ends.There's absolutely zero character development. Nada. Zilch. Story does not progress at all. Actually, there is no story. The characters are extremely boring, and all there's to it is a little bit of skin here and there with the most absurd and ridiculous sound track. It is unbelievable how trashy the score is. I would get it if this was a thriller or a horror movie but hearing the music while a couple is having... makes you say what the...?Do yourself a favor. Do not even think about watching this crap. Trust me, you will be glad you didn't.

A Teacher (2013)A maddening movie that has some gutsy aspects. But there is so much depending on credibility in the character's motivations, you can't quite ever buy the plot.Which is this: a high school teacher gets involved with one of her students. I know this happens now and then, often to national headlines, so that much I like. But we want to see the psychology of a teacher who would do that, and it isn't here. What the director and writer (and leading actress, to some extent) give us is a young woman who takes risks and is obsessed with the young man she begins having sex with. Big risks. Risks so absurd (like kissing him in the classroom after the other students have left) that you wonder if the movie makers had information that this was true, or if they were winging it with no good instincts about how people would act in this situation.Not that it needs to be terribly rational. Obviously here is a case of a teacher losing track of her place in her job, in her life, and of the consequences ahead. The student we believe, just enjoying a good ride with a nutty teacher, somewhat sincere in his liking her but a little baffled by her obsession. I mean he's only a high schooler, and as much as they know a lot about a lot, they don't know about the convolutions of older people's ability to love, and the complications of that.Anyway, there is a lot offered here and very little achieved. To some extent the last scene of the teacher lying on a borrowed bed sums up all of our feelings. Kind of, oh my god, oh my god. Yeah, of course. But with so much dangling and unexplored, this could have been a powerful, valuable, must see drama.