Review of A Teacher (2013) by Rodrigo M — 21 Aug 2015

The plot is simple. The experience and looming consequences are dangerously complex. Hannah Fidell approaches the topic of a young female high school teacher who encages in an affair with one of her senior-age students without background or detail. This is a bit of genius as it allows her leading actor, Linday Burdge, an unbridled opportunity to fully explore her character without the burden of following a more "familiar" connect-the-dots screenplay. Burdge is more than up for the task.

Fidell establishes the tone of the film utilizing abrupt editing, intense musical score and off-kilter camera perspectives. We are given just enough information about the protagonist to know that she is on the verge of crisis. The film needs no dialog or "set-up" to understand how a mutually erotic flirtation swells into something far more menacing.

At the end of the day, this is an artistic portrait of a woman pushed to her emotional and psychological limits. She hides her pain, loneliness and isolation so well that it is barely detectable as she interacts with others. The exception being her lover who is far too immature to understand the area into which he stumbles. This film is not "provocation" or "salacious." Fidell avoids those traps. However, she is smart enough to create more than a little erotic tension.

Unpredictable, unflinching, dark and with a constant tone of threat -- "A Teacher" is a horrifying film. It should not be missed. I'm particularly disappointed with The New York Times and NPR for failing to grasp what this experimental film manages to achieve.