An absolutely superb central performance from Maggie Gyllenhaal forms the core of The Kindergarten Teacher, writer/director Sara Colangelo’s English language remake of an Israeli film by Nadav Lapid (which I must confess I haven’t seen). The Kindergarten Teacher is a slow-burn, psychological drama that gets under the skin in a quite remarkable way.
Gyllenhaal plays Lisa, an art loving kindergarten teacher who is drawn to one of her charges, five-year old Jimmy (Parker Sevak). Jimmy is a child prodigy poet, whose extraordinary talent Lisa feels is in danger of being ignored or crushed by indifferent parents and carers. She takes it on herself to nourish his talent, but gradually her interest becomes an obsession.
Performances are uniformly superb. Parker Sevak gives a superb, naturalistic performance as Jimmy, but this is really a showcase for Gyllenhaal. Every understated glance, head movement, expression or gesture does everything a great performance should in showing rather than telling what her character is experiencing. The nuanced and restrained screenplay assists with this, as does the unshowy but nonetheless quite brilliant direction. Colangelo makes one or two particularly superb choices in the finale that stayed with me long after the credits rolled.
Speaking of finales, there are a number of well-worn paths it might have taken. This could have been a horror possession story (Jimmy makes eerie reference to a woman called “Anna” in his poems). This could have gone the psycho-thriller route, or to some even darker places. However, Colangelo opts for something quite different and far more thought provoking. The Kindergarten Teacher is about the rarity of true artistic talent, and the way an indifferent world can crush it. It is also about the dangers of living vicariously. Lisa’s indifference to her husband, disappointment in her own children, and in herself, causes her to take increasingly dangerous and inappropriate risks with Jimmy.
Of course, none of this can end well, but I was surprised by just how sympathetic I felt towards Lisa. That is both testament to the brilliance of Gyllenhaal’s performance, and a result of my own peculiar psychological make-up, which leads me onto my final point. Like all great art, how you respond to The Kindergarten Teacher will depend on who you are as a person. Whilst I felt sympathy, others might not – or perhaps, not to the same degree. Either way, this is a tremendous film and comes highly recommended.
Concluding this series on the Oxford International Short Film Festival, here are some of the highlights you can expect to see there tomorrow.
No Response – A desperate informer on the run hides and performs gruesome impromptu surgery on himself, in the bloody aftermath of attempting to wear a wire amid dangerous criminals. Director Ollie Blake stages the drama with claustrophobic flair, and even helms an agreeably nasty fight scene. A fine lead performance from Warren Sollars is another bonus.
Anything for you, Abby – A highly amusing sci-fi sex farce, involving a girl called Abby taking care of her boss’s flat, trying to deactivate a malfunctioning sex robot that she has unwisely borrowed (it won’t stop masturbating). Abby spends much of the film on the phone to the sex robot’s customer service division, desperately trying to fix it before her boss returns. With an amusing script from Gregory Goetz and assured direction from Jamin Bricker, Anything for you, Abby is a good puerile giggle with fine comic performances from its cast, including Phoebe Neidhardt, Johnny Wactor, Amy Pietz and Todd Giebenhain.
Futures – Obnoxious stock market middle manager Leo (an excellent, scenery chewing Craig Parkinson) tries to cash in on an international terrorist crisis, whilst his increasingly harassed staff begin to question his dubious methods. A taut, profane script builds an impressive head of dramatic steam, especially as the terror threat moves closer to home. Full marks to director Daniel Marc Janes for creating a genuinely impressive cinematic pressure cooker.
Blue Peter – This impressively mournful slab of Kieslowski-esque miserablism concerns a conscience stricken policeman, who finds he can no longer stand by and allow bailiffs to persecute despairing citizens unable to support themselves in the midst of an economic crisis. Director Marko Santic draws out some fine performances from his cast, wringing a great deal from every stilted exchange and awkward silence.
Over the next three days, I’m reviewing some of the highlights from the upcoming Oxford International Short Film Festival on Saturday 23rd March.
Shamas – Writer/director Myriam Raja’s dystopian drama Shamas is set inside a refugee camp in a future Britain, following an implied economic catastrophe (graffiti glimpsed at one point reads “Britain has fallen”). The film follows a young man (James Downie) unable to get out of said camp due to his “non-priority” status, who finds unlikely help from an older, wheelchair bound man (Pano Masti). The film is well acted and directed, with the simple plight front and centre, relegating the bigger questions of what exactly has led to this (presumably) exodus from Britain to an implied background.
Paris: You Got Me – This a delightful variation on a couple of memorable set pieces from Mary Poppins (the chalk paintings and the chimney sweeps) is also a unique and charming musical romance in its own right. Boasting fine chemistry and dancing from leads Rsenia Parkhatskaya and Liam Scullion, with technically assured direction from Julie Boehm, along with some vivid animation, it’s a joy to watch. There is even a slightly surreal German Expressionist sequence near the finale, which for a moment made me wonder if the film was about to veer into Dr Caligari territory. A gem.
Over the last few days, I’ve been running interviews on this blog with all my fellow First Love authors, discussing their contributions to the eponymous romantic fantasy anthology from Dragon Soul Press.
It all depends on the story and where the muses take me.
Simon Dillon Books 