Chalk

I saw this at the LA Film Festival, and it's a funny peek at the lives of teachers, from a point of view you don't often see.

According to the festival literature, it was written and directed by actual former teachers, so as you can imagine there is a lot of inside stuff that we may not have seen before, that is both sad and funny.

The plot, such as it is, follows four new teachers at a high school in Texas during their first year, and all the trials and tribulations they encounter. I didn't recognize any of the cast, I think the kids may have been real students, but that didn't matter to me. Like 'The Office', it shows the ineptitude and struggle to make sense of ridiculous things, like school policy, and people desperate to win 'teacher of the year'. It's funny and heartfelt, and reminded me of a Christopher Guest film in that it felt ad-libbed more than scripted.

I ended up feeling great affection for these people, and thought the film was very good.

I saw this film at the Tom Cruise Scientology Laboratories Religious Propaganda Festival, and I must say the crowd absolutely LOVED it. Afterward, we all chanted and lost ourselves in a quick, pulsating rhythm of spirituality that is in the very nature of our alien beings... Xinatthrusta-humda!

Seriously now. Why do some IMDb-ers start their comments with "I saw this film at such and such festival"? Who cares where you saw the film. As if the location and the circumstances matter. In fact, I saw "Chalk" in my bathroom while standing upside-down and juggling tennis balls with my feet. Does that make my experience any more or less worthy, interesting, valid?

I see no problem in someone combining Christopher Guest's mockumentary style (very obviously quite influential here) with a bit of Woody Allen thrown in. The improvisations are quite solid, the cast is good (amateur or not) and fairly likable, and there is even a pleasant little song at the very end of the end-credits. However, there are no laugh-out-loud moments - unless, of course, if you were watching this film with an eager festival crowd who carried you with their unbridled, uncritical enthusiasm, almost forcing you to laugh along with them. The gags i.e. the observations about the teaching life are clever, somewhat amusing, and "cute", but hardly what one could call hilarious. Although an indie film, it succumbs to the old Hollywood formula sentimentality trap which has ruined man a comedy by infiltrating itself like a virus into the last third of the movie. I can't say I was annoyed by the quick deterioration of comedy to melancholic semi-schmaltz, but a mockumentary should end just as it had begun: with humor. I am a proponent of the "Seinfeld" school of "zero sentimentality" comedy, as opposed to the "cheap weepy drama twists" school of "Friends", an approach tailored toward easy-to-please sheep. Hence that is the one rule that they should have definitely obeyed in the Christopher Guest Manual of Making Fake Documentaries. Although not a perfect film, the makers of "Chalk" can find consolation in the fact that their little movie is much better than Guest's "A Mighty Wind", which was a major disappointment.

I had never heard before either of the "Teacher of the Year Debate" or the "Spelling Hornet". Did they make this up, or do these two absurd events actually take place in American high schools? You are welcome to e-mail me with an answer to that one. (I can't be bothered to surf the net for that...) If so, then no wonder the U.S. pre-college education system is in such poor shape. Teachers debating in front of students over who should win "teacher of the year"?? Teachers being tested in spelling those ridiculous new slang words?? You gotta be kidding me...

All in all, I consider "Chalk" to be a cut above the rest of the independent films coming out in recent years. It was interesting to observe that the makers of the movie thank a few dozen festivals for supporting them from the beginning - and yet the supposedly "hip", "underground", and "trend-setting" Sundance festival wasn't mentioned. However, this doesn't really surprise me. The reason Robert Redford and his cronies (initially?) ignored this film is simple: "Chalk" is a totally unpolitical film, lacking the left-wing propaganda bits that Redford looks out for.

So my advice for "Chalk 2: The Sequel" is this: invite Michael Moore to have a cameo appearance in which he will mock a Capitalist or a policeman, and include a sub-plot about a dumb Republican teacher that everyone hates. That would definitely please His Royal Redness, Robert Ford the Red One...

I rented the DVD because I come from a family of teachers, and one of them recommended that I watch the film in order to gain a better understanding of their jobs. I found it to be entertaining, but I obviously didn't appreciate it as much as teachers seem to, just as they probably don't appreciate all of the humor I find in "Office Space".

The teachers who call this "true to life" must mean this in the same sense that a Korean War veteran once told me that M*A*S*H was true to life-- as a good caricature of some of the more extreme people and situations, intermixed with some reminders of what daily life was like, not as anything close to a realistic snapshot.

I don't want to believe that there are really very many high school teachers like that. I wouldn't expect students to feel much respect for any of them.

Time for me to get back to my TPS reports.

I'm a big Christopher Guest fan and honestly went into this film expecting to be disappointed, but wound up being pleasantly surprised. Chalk was very entertaining, often hilarious, at times touching, and even managed to pull everything together to actually tell a story pretty well. The development of the Mr. Lowery character from start to finish was great. There were only a handful of actors in the film (the rest were real students, principals, teachers, etc.) and they were great. Troy Schremmer was excellent. Anyhow, I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys finding comedy in the ridiculousness of life or basically anyone who enjoys good mockumentaries. Or, people who are teachers or are related to teachers and know that world. Two thumbs up.

I graduated college in 1994 with a bachelors degree in Government, but was unable to get into any post-graduate program that I applied for. So I have had a series of low-paying jobs that don't require more than a high school education. Ever since then, my mother has been asking me why don't I take a salaried position as a teacher like my brother. The trouble is that my brother hates teaching, and only took it up because he couldn't find anything else. And from all of my other friends who have become teachers (or who used to be teachers but burned out), I have heard that it is a high-stress job with very few rewards.

The movie "Chalk" is made by a group of teachers and does nothing to disabuse me of my beliefs about teaching as a profession. The teachers in the film are portrayed as a bunch of social misfits with serious relationship issues and middling intellects--in other words, not the sort of people who should be teaching kids. The one constant in their world is a lack of respect: not only from the students, but also from the parents and even each other.

Troy Schremmer is the emotional core of the film as Mr. Lowery, a first-year history teacher who used to work in high tech. He is shocked to learn that reading "Classroom Management for Dummies" is inadequate preparation for teaching, and is intimidated by his students (and sometimes even their parents). Janelle Schremmer plays Coach Webb, who whines about men assuming she's a lesbian because she's a PE coach who doesn't wear makeup and keeps her hair cut short. She develops a crush on Mr. Lowery during the course of the year. Screenwriter Chris Mass plays Mr. Stroope, who makes up for his lack of brains with his enthusiasm for teaching and massive ego. His goal is to become teacher of the year, not by hard work and discipline but by trash-talking the other teachers and treating his students as if they were his peers. And there is Shannon Harrigan as Mrs. Reddell, a former choir teacher promoted to Assistant Principal. She is harried by all the other teachers--once her peers--expecting her to side with them in their various squabbles with each other, and her new responsibilities are taking a toll on her marriage.

Many viewers have enthusiastically praised this film and compared it with the works of Christopher Guest--"This is Spinal Tap" in particular. The thing is, though, that Guest is a professional actor and director who had years to hone his craft before the cameras started rolling on "Spinal Tap". Michael McKean, Rob Reiner, and Harry Shearer also are show-biz professionals with established careers that predate "Spinal Tap". The director, writers and actors in "Chalk" are all actual teachers at the school where it was filmed. Many say this is an asset in that it gives the film an air of authenticity. I found it insufferable watching a bunch of people who can't act in a poorly shot film. And am I the only one who's sick of hand-held DV?

I did like the fact that the movie avoids all the usual Hollywood clichés found in the typical "inspirational" film about teaching. And there was one funny moment when Mrs. Redell sings "We can teach if we want to" to the tune of "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats.

But overall this is the work of amateurs. Appropriate perhaps to show to their families, students and co-workers, but not worthy of a paying audience. 5 out of 10.