Short Film Reviews: Teacher Appreciation Week

Speaking as someone who graduated college just as the COVID-19 pandemic was starting to pick up steam, the virus had a stark impact on the already precarious education system. As COVID lockdowns forced schools to close their doors and take to the Internet to continue educating, teachers have had to deal with the additional stress of having to reformat their lesson plans to accommodate for virtual schooling. I can only imagine the host of problems that might arise from trying to teach an hour-long class over Zoom.

So to honor the struggles and sacrifices of all the hard-working educators out there, I'm dedicating this short film review list to Teacher Appreciation Week. Hopefully, some of the teachers in these films below will remind you of the teachers that have had a positive influence on your life. With that said, class is now in session, so let's get started!

Wright's Law:

To kick off this list, we have a short documentary focusing on Kentuckian Jeffrey Wright. A passionate physics teacher at Louisville Male High School, Mr. Wright is beloved by many for his engaging approach to teaching and the wealth of love he has for his pupils. But it's at home that Jeffrey's big heart is put to the test as he deals with the trials that come with the birth of his disabled son Adam. Released in 2012, Wright's Law is a bit awkward to watch for the first time now. In the years that followed the documentary's release, Jeffrey Wright would face accusations of inappropriate conduct, resulting in his termination from Louisville Male High. I couldn't find much else on the scandal, but judging from this petition, it seems public consensus is that Jeffrey Wright is a great teacher being unfairly railroaded for his unconventional methods.

(Looking over the list of his offenses on the above-linked article, I can halfway concur. While Wright definitely should've known some of his actions wouldn't look good, other "offenses" on the list sound either entirely innocuous or like they're based on unsubstantiated claims)

Ignoring the controversy that would come seven years after its release, Wright's Law is a sweet look at the life of a teacher dedicated to both his job and his family. Initially, the documentary has a lightweight and almost comedic tone to it. Between Wright's boisterous personality, lively in-class science experiments, and casual interview segments with his students, the first few minutes of Wright's Law are a fluffy but nonetheless heartwarming look at a teacher aiming to be a fun educator and a supportive shoulder for his students. It's in the second half that things get heavier, with the focus going from Wright's mission as a teacher to the challenges he faced upon learning his son has Joubert Syndrome.

While the transition is far from a smooth one, it doesn't take away from the documentary's impact. As we listen to Wright recount the story of how he came to terms with his son's ailment, we're treated to footage of him going about his daily life with Adam. Combined, Wright's love for his son is palpable and the way he's able to take care of and bond with Adam despite the additional challenges presented is awe-inspiring. Being mostly a day-in-the-life short feature, the pacing sometimes gets off course and starts meandering. But for the most part, Wright's Law is an inspirational tale about a man working to educate and uplift his students while finding strength in the wake of difficult news. And if the final minutes of the film don't put a smile on your face, I don't know what will.

Score: 7 out of 10 pink calculators.

Teacher in a Box:

With COVID-19 forcing many schools to shut down, technology became a necessity for educators looking to keep their curriculums afloat. But as Teacher in a Box demonstrates, technology has as much capacity to hurt as it does to help. Ms. Rossi (Rebecca Hazlewood) is a teacher at The School for Innovation, an academy that utilizes specialized technology to teach students design--with the intention of putting the best creations into production. But while her job's left her more than a little jaded, Ms. Rossi's teacherly instincts are brought back to life by Rayne (Sarika Sanyal), a gifted but defiant student she's tasked with mentoring. Can Ms. Rossi break through the troubled girl's shell and protect her and her brilliant ideas?

Right out the gates, Teacher in a Box perfectly builds its atmosphere. Opening on a shot of Ms. Rossi's creepily monotoned digital replica (a chillingly stoic dual role played by Rebecca Hazlewood), we're quickly thrown into the film's universe where the art of teaching has been stripped of its warmth and replaced with cold machinery. The movie's monochrome color scheme illustrates this change, symbolizing the uncaring nature of The School for Innovation and the methods they use. While her colleagues claim to be advocating for the students and their abilities, Ms. Rossi can see them for the opportunistic swindlers they are. In Hazlewood's hands, Ms. Rossi as snarky as she is likable. When she's not taking subtle jabs at her self-serving coworkers, she's showing that she hasn't lost all of her empathy to having her job rendered nearly obsolete.

Sarika Sanyal plays well opposite Hazlewood, allowing Rayne to have a sharp tongue to match wits with her teacher. And like Hazlewood, Sanyal is able to convey the pain Rayne tries to keep hidden by pushing everyone away. Ms. Rossi and Rayne eventually form a connection through their shared anguish, leading to the film's poignant but moderately uplifting finale. SPOILER ALERT While it's sad to see Rayne's prototype for the "affordable house of the future" in the process of being monopolized, it at least comes with the benefit of the girl being inadvertently rescued from her abusive foster home. Spoilers Over As for Ms. Rossi's work acquaintances, all four are well-played by their actors and are realistic in their self-involved apathy towards the children in their care. Reza Sixo Safai and Lynn Chen (the latter of whom appeared in a pair of Lifetime premieres last year) bring affability to Mr. Carl and Ms. Malloy's selfishness. Chen in particular plays Malloy with such chipper energy that you might start liking her despite yourself. Of the four, Emayatzy Corinealdi makes the most impact story-wise as the morally ambiguous Mrs. Tandon. After her talk with Ms. Rossi, Corinealdi will have you wondering if Tandon's just as callous as her partners or if there's a part of her that genuinely believes she's doing something noble.

The most notable issue with Teacher in a Box is how parts of its universe go unexplored. The moral angle of the story (while always lingering in the background) isn't discussed between Ms. Rossi and Rayne as much it should've been. There's also the matter of Rayne being ostracized and bullied by her classmates, which is never explained at all and seems to be there solely to give the poor girl another hardship to bear. But with a talented cast and a thought-provoking story that ends on a realistic note of optimism, Teacher in a Box is a great sci-fi drama and a stellar film debut for Sarika Sanyal.

Score: 8 out of 10 obscene gestures.

Just A Drill:

Released in a year marked by a staggering 417 U.S. mass shootings, Just A Drill is a suspense short about what I imagine would be any teacher's worst nightmare. We follow Eva Walker (Sally Pressman) as she prepares for an active shooter drill. But after a smooth start, things begin to spiral out of control as Eva fears this drill may actually be the real thing. Being something of a mini-thriller, Just A Drill keeps you in a state of dread even before the drill begins. As we follow Eva about her day and through the drill preparations, we're waiting for the inevitable catastrophe to break out, kept on the edge as it slowly becomes clear that this "drill" has become a terrifying reality.

Being based on director Julianne Donelle's experience participating in active shooter drills during her time as an educator, it's no wonder Just A Drill is so consistently authentic. In addition to the realistic depiction of active shooter drill procedures, the acting is all-around genuine. Sally Pressman gives a gripping lead performance as Eva Walker finds herself caught in an agonizing predicament, making up for the opening minutes where her character's likability takes a hit. Her treatment of Simon is pretty hard to watch, in no small part thanks to Jackson Pace's heartbreaking performance. Eva is either completely oblivious to the implications Simon is dropping about his home life (or at best, picks up on them a little too late) or is willfully dismissing a troubled student asking for help.

SPOILER ALERT On the flipside, Eva's stringent "I can't bend the rules" attitude serves as nice subtle foreshadowing to the dilemma she ends the movie on: whether or not to break protocol and let Simon into the classroom before the shooter catches him (assuming Simon isn't the shooter himself...) It's just a shame the movie ends without giving us an outcome to this battle of morals. While Just A Drill's anticlimactic finale is still memorable for its ambiguity, up-to-11 tension, and posing a difficult question for viewers to think about, it could've done all that while also providing some semblance of finality. Spoilers Over As for supporting roles, D.J. Blickenstaff is adorable as Eva's awkward former student/new coworker Jay and the two teens joining Eva for the drill (Delaney and Marissa) are likably played by Zoe Cipres and Michelle Farrah Huang, with just a hint of playful adolescent irreverence thrown in for flavor. While the ending is guaranteed to leave many frustrated, Just A Drill is otherwise an attention-grabbing drama about a horrific situation too many innocent people have had to endure.

Score: 7.5 out of 10 coffee maker notes.

The English Teacher:

Before anyone makes the same mistake I did when I first stumbled across this film: it's about a teacher of the English language, not literature. The titular teacher is Robert Brammel (Louis James), hired by Jin Ying (Blake Ridder) to give him English lessons for an upcoming exam. But over the course of their lessons and odd budding friendship, we learn that not everything about this arrangement is as it seems. For about 8 minutes of this 12-minute long film, my expectations were plateaued. With the slow pace and seemingly uncertain plot flow, The English Teacher seemed like it was going to be a stale short film with a predictably tragic story.

But in the final 4 minutes, a twist landed like an atomic bomb to shake everything up. With it, the already dour mood becomes strikingly somber, with the big revelation making previous scenes even more tearjerking in hindsight. Louis James and Blake Ridder (the latter of whom also wrote and directed The English Teacher) both throw themselves into Robert and Jin's characters. James works well with the script to subtly clue the viewer into Robert's hidden sorrow while Ridder is adorable as pre-reveal Jin and heartwrenching as post-reveal Jin. It's also pretty inspiring to see what a patient and encouraging teacher Robert is to Jin; despite dealing with his own personal issues, Robert never allows his grief to affect his work. So thanks to its duo of strong actors and their compelling chemistry, The English Teacher's stagnant opening minutes are worth watching. And once you hit the final minutes and that gut-punch of an ending, anyone who's been nodding off will be watching with rapt attention--and wet eyes.

Score: 8 out of 10 £700 transfers.

Flower:

In another short film centered on a female teacher and a troubled child, Flower follows its young title character (Reganne Sheely) as her teacher Sister Catherine (Aqueela Zoll) becomes worried about her welfare. In addition to her concerning behavior, a cut on her lip convinces Catherine that Flower is being abused--a worry compounded after a hostile meeting with Flower's widowed father (Peter McGlynn). But little does Catherine know that Flower's home life is even darker than she'd imagined. While a previous film on this list briefly touched on the subject of child abuse, Flower makes it the central conflict of the story. And while that aforementioned film had a flicker of hope hidden under its cynical surface, Flower is a much grimmer tale.

On a technical level, though, Flower finds itself wilting. The audio is frequently muddled, with dialogue often being overpowered by the background noise/music. It doesn't help that there are times when the actors don't project loud enough, leaving their lines struggling even more to break through all the other sounds. This comes at the consequence of weakening a few powerful character moments, with Flower's climactic scene with her father at the dinner table being the worst instance of this. Apart from the projection problems, the cast plays their roles well. Reganne Sheely gives an upsettingly true-to-life depiction of an emotionally broken child while Aqueela Zoll is fierce as a teacher determined to protect a student in crisis. Catherine's scene with Mr. Torrence is enrapturing to watch, with Zoll's bold reprimand complemented by Peter McGlynn's scarily aggressive portrayal of an abusive father with a sadistic secret.

For keen-eared viewers, that secret won't be too hard to deduce, though that doesn't take away from the persistent fear you'll have watching to see what's going to become of poor Flower. Interestingly, Sister Catherine and Flower have a similar dynamic to that of Ms. Rossi and Rayne from Teacher in a Box. While both are limited in their ability to change their circumstances, neither let that stop them from calling their situations out (to some degree) for what they are. We see that in how Catherine is unafraid to condemn Mr. Torrance for his abuse and in how Flower--as scared as she may be of him--hasn't had her will to fight back completely snuffed out by her father's cruelty.

SPOILER ALERT The ultimate climax is a mix of good and bad. Flower's conclusion aligns with the film's gloomy atmosphere, with our only solace being the possibility that Flower can find help elsewhere and escape her father's clutches. There's also Chloe Golden's great performance as the ill-fated Jenny Rozin, especially in her final words to Flower. On the other hand, it's hard to ignore the fact that this climax is only possible due to Catherine apparently not calling the authorities and instead going to the Torrance farm by herself, resulting in her demise. Even under the generous assumption that the Police Are Useless trope is meant to be at play, you'd think there'd be a scene confirming this so Catherine doesn't end the movie going from strong protector to dumb slasher movie victim. Spoilers Over While its technical and written stumbles do their damage, Flower is still a well-acted horror-drama with enough suspense to leave you breathless.

Score: 7 out of 10 dilapidated trampolines.

Who We Became:

Very ironic how this film has the main protagonist making a remark about "messing up the streak," as that's precisely what Who We Became does to this review list's streak. A victim of bullying as a teenager and presently a disillusioned high school teacher, Keith (Jaren Anderson) begins to realize he's let his past pull him into a vicious cycle of misery. While it has a worthwhile message behind it, Who We Became falls short in its execution. The script presents its story in the most generic fashion possible, with the catalyst behind the climax being especially cheap and easy to predict word-by-word. Most of the acting isn't anything to write a term paper about either, with the supporting and minor players being passable at best and incredibly lifeless at worst.

Even the lead actors (Jaren Anderson and Tim Baylar as Keith and his younger self) slip into stiffness at times. Other times, though, both give the most serviceable performances of the movie. Baylar (made up to look like a convincing high school outcast) accurately depicts the feeling of being a depressed bullied teen while Anderson has some strong moments as a bitter man becoming as nasty as the people who victimized and dismissed him in the past. SPOILER ALERT This allows the climax to make up for its cliché beginning, with Keith being taunted and chastised by the past versions of himself and his bully William (played by Ryan Pesce). After watching Keith callously dismiss a bullied student's plight and generally act needlessly snide to everyone, seeing him reduced to tears as he's chastised by his own mind is a satisfying sight.

Unfortunately, Who We Became's brief climax is the film's high point and even then, it can't escape the script unscathed. While the dialogue as a whole is pretty bad, Young Keith and William's diatribes to present-day Keith are particularly cringe-worthy for how they hit you over the head with the message. Spoilers Over As bland as it is poorly written and directed, Who We Became's moral about bullying and the cycle of abuse is left deserted in a movie that doesn't give that moral the compelling treatment it deserves.

Score: 3 out of 10 Canadian flags.

Overall:

If this list were a report card, it'd be all As and Bs except for a glaring D at the bottom. But looking past the pothole that was Who We Became, this field trip through the world of teacher-centric short films has been one filled with engrossing stories and excellent performances. Apart from the final film, none of the movies on this list ranked lower than a 7--an impressive feat for a collection of films that were all found by chance. And in addition to being entertaining, many of these films highlight the challenges that come with being a teacher. So to show some love for the many dedicated educators out there this week, click this link to see how you can show them your support this Teacher Appreciation Week. Maybe even considering reaching out to the inspiring teachers who've been a part of your life to give out some personal thank-yous.