Detention

Hmmm,...this COULD have been an exceptional film for ages teen to adult. However, because the writers and producers decided to include a lot of gratuitous nudity (including genitalia and people urinating), this is NOT a movie for the kids or even the teens--which is a shame, as the movie could have been enjoyed by teens, but I assume most responsible parents wouldn't let their kids see this. In fact, up until the long nude sequence, my 16 year-old was watching the film with me, but I had to turn it off and see it when she went to bed. While I COULD understand the extensive use of a lot of profanity, it would have been easy to do the film without so much skin. Plus, the fact that all these nude scenes are supposed to involve kids about 16 or so, it seems pretty disturbing. Perhaps a pedophile could find the movie very arousing. And all this is a REAL shame, as the film was written and acted so well and really was exceptionally original and interesting.

The story involves a bizarre but very likable substitute teacher who works in a school that is full of rich, pampered punks who run the place and make the adults live in fear. While this aspect seemed a bit over-the-top in this regard, it did make for a VERY satisfying sadistic solution by the sub. Instead of betraying the manner in which he corrects several bad kids' behavior, it's really best you see it yourself--just be sure it's without the kids!

One reviewer said they felt that the acting was bad, though I actually thought John Davies in particular (in the lead) was exceptional. I really liked the job he did in the film and hope to see more of him in other films.

By the way, I usually am not obsessed with minute mistakes in movies, but I did notice a problem with the sequence where the two teachers drink a beer. Before the lady opens her bottle of beer, it already has about 1/3 of the contents missing.

I have to admit that this did not turn out to be what I expected it to be. It was actually better. The script is well done and provides enough substance to make it worth watching. For the most part it is a believable story. The acting is not bad for the relatively unknown cast. If you are looking for something different, this is it.

The advance reviews of writer & director Andy Anderson's Detention prepared me for a '90s version of To Sir with Love, and indeed, the first part of this film is along that line, except that now we have not only uncontrollable kids but an adminstration that has lost the will and the power to do anything about them. The teachers are bound by political correctness, a starvation budget, fear of lawsuits, and a thousand other plagues on the education system. Even Sidney Poitier would be helpless were he bound this tightly by a legal system gone mad.

I kept waiting for Bill Walmsley, the hero teacher of this movie, confidently played by John Davies, to work the Stand and Deliver miracle, but it doesn't come, and the movie slows, when suddenly Walmsley tries an approach that rips the conventions right out from under this movie. No, this isn't To Sir with Love or Stand and Deliver or even The Dead Poets Society. Yet in one fell swoop, the movie becomes darkly funny while raising some serious questions about how difficult public education is in a world run by lawyers. It's a sure sign of how crazy the education system has become when the craziest arguments for reform make the most sense I've heard in years.

In the opening scene of this dark satire, a panning camera finds a man sitting alone in a room of fading photographs and antiques. A telephone rings. He picks it up just as men sent to take him to a mental institution are knocking at his door. His choice, to take a job as a substitute teacher, sets off an intriguing and provocative tale that takes us through deft riffs on Clockwork Orange, Blackboard Jungle, Heart of Darkness, Kafka, and Jonathan Swift, and I am not just dropping names; a meaningful discussion of this complex film would include all of these influences. What appears to be a conventional, yet both disturbing and comic, story about an idealistic instructor's attempts to reform wayward youth takes a startling turn and confronts the viewer with questions of the basic worth of human selfhood and dignity. Anyone concluding that the film espouses a certain "solution" should look for the irony and keep in mind that the director himself referenced Swift's "Modest Proposal" at a recent post-screening discussion. General release in August

With his latest film, Andy Anderson proves once again that an engaging, entertaining movie can be made on a modest budget. Mainstream Hollywood movies have become increasingly predictable, but not Anderson's work. He swims in his own private river where quirkiness and surprises abound.

Is DETENTION a comedy? Black comedy? Social drama? Thriller? Don't even attempt to apply a label until you've watched this movie to the very end. This is part of the film's allure. It can't be categorized by genre.

DETENTION is a unique, satisfying film. It takes the viewer on a thought-provoking, thrill ride that won't soon be forgotten.