School-themed movies, shows you’ll actually want to watch
Published 10:30 pm Sunday, August 23, 2009
It’s the time of year when kids load up their backpacks and educators make sure all their red pens are in working order.
Since summer weather doesn’t really set the proper mood for another year of pop quizzes and science fair projects, allow the following DVDs to get you in a new-school-year state of mind.
Many classic films and series have focused on the lessons learned between bell ringings: “Blackboard Jungle,” “Stand and Deliver,” “The Breakfast Club,” heck, even “Welcome Back, Kotter.” But foregt the classics. These films were made in your lifetime:
“Mad Hot Ballroom”: This sweet, infectious documentary usually gets filed in the “dance movie” category. And, yes, it is principally a film about New York City elementary school students learning how to fox trot and meringue their way toward triumph in a citywide competition.
But “Ballroom” also does a marvelous job of capturing the innocence of 11-year-old minds, the joy of learning and the pride that dedicated teachers take in seeing their young charges blossom. Don’t even try to keep your emotions in check when one teacher chokes up as she describes watching her kids turn into “ladies and gentlemen.”
“School of Rock”: Yes, this one airs pretty often on cable television, which means you’ve probably seen Jack Black tell a group of young prep schoolers to fight The Man about 100 times. But so what? Richard Linklater’s funny, irresistible ode to rock ‘n’ roll and its power to inspire young minds brings more pure, joyful noise to the school-movie genre than any flick in recent memory.
“Rocket Science”: Anyone who ever joined a high school debate team or participated in forensics competitions will recognize the intensity of the driven debaters in this overlooked 2007 coming-of-ager about a compulsive stutterer determined to master public speaking — for the sake of a girl, of course.
“Half Nelson”: This 2006 drama is best known as the movie that earned Ryan Gosling an Academy Award nomination. He portrays a drug-addicted history teacher who gets fired up in the classroom but can’t pull his life together outside of it. “Half Nelson” is a film that depicts the bond between teacher and student with an authenticity that Hollywood uplifters of the “Finding Forrester” variety only hope to achieve.
“The Class”: One of last year’s Academy Award nominees for best foreign language film, “The Class” focuses so much of its action within the walls of one French teacher’s classroom, viewers can practically smell the chalk dust. The story of a veteran educator (Francois Begaudeau, who also wrote the semi-autobiographical novel on which the movie is based), “The Class” doesn’t shy away from the discouraging realities of working in an inner-city school system.
“Undeclared”: “Freaks and Geeks” may be the canceled Judd Apatow series that has earned the loudest critical praise. But don’t forget about this equally short-lived and well-observed comedy that follows scrawny freshman Steven Karp through his first, daunting days at the fictional University of North Eastern California.
“Election”: In Alexander Payne’s biting, hilarious modern high school classic, it becomes wincingly clear that even the teachers are prepared to bring the noise to get the “right” president elected to the student council. If you haven’t seen Reese Witherspoon in the role of prissy, self-righteous Tracy Flick, correct that error ASAP.
“The Wire: The Complete Fourth Season”: The 13 episodes in this season of the acclaimed HBO drama zoom in on the daily dysfunction and small victories found within the walls of a fictional Baltimore middle school. The picture isn’t always pretty. But because of brilliant writing and affecting performances, “The Wire” delivers perhaps the most nuanced, honest portrayal of the state of America’s schools ever captured on television.
