FeatherlessBiped

This film manages to be heavy-handed even as it attempts to be light of spirit.

Tom, the protagonist, is not likeable; perhaps we are supposed to believe that all his sullenness comes from a long-ago family tragedy. It's hard to believe that he lets his students devolve into anarchy whenever his back is turned.

Other staff members at his school are caricatures: the "Napoleonic" headmaster, the colleague who is clingy and won't shut up. Played for laughs? If so, it doesn't work.

Meanwhile, very serious things are happening with the country's politics, which turns the film into a weird juxtaposition of frivolity and tragedy.

I'm not sure what they were going for, but I don't feel they achieved it.

This fully realized look at Alanis's life (from childhood to stardom and beyond) highlights the global sensation caused by the Jagged Little Pill album.

It features great archival footage of her earliest steps into music, her wrestling with sudden fame, and her hugely successful world tour after that album exploded. We also get insights about her struggles with the industry and what her success meant to female artists.

Interspersed with all of this is an extensive conversation with the late-40s Alanis about those earlier days. She is articulate and insightful about all she experienced.

I wish I knew what she dislikes about it. Without knowing that, I found it a brilliant film.

This film has a pleasant veneer of quality: lots of capable actors (including the ever watch-worthy Jennifer Grey), interesting scenery, pleasant soundtrack music, heart-tugging references to the Holocaust. Just a couple of aspects made it unenjoyable for me.

1. The mismatched-pair trope is far from original, and this version of it felt formulaic. (Also, I feel like I've seen Jesse Eisenberg play versions of this same neurotic-New-Yorker character before.)

2. One of the protagonists behaves in such a painfully cringe-y way, over and over, that those scenes are virtually unwatchable.

Just not my cup of tea.