The English Teacher
Director: Craig Zisk
Year Released: 2013
Rating: 1.5
A dowdy English teacher (Julianne Moore) reunites with a former student and struggling playwright (Michael Angarano) and volunteers to put his 'masterwork' on stage in her high school (with the help of the drama teacher, played by Nathan Lane) - before you know it, the old cliché of the teacher-student relationship kicks in, causing countless problems. The very instant Angarano starts pounding Moore on her desk the picture takes a massive nosedive into nonstop ethical problems in which the adults behave like children and the children behave like children: it becomes a repellent, unscrupulous affair. Upon discovering the nature of the Moore-Angarano relationship, Moore is dismissed then rehired to be involved in the play and Angarano's father (Greg Kinnear), knowing fully his son had sex with Moore, decides she'd be a desirable dating partner. Having worked as an English teacher myself for so many years doesn't help me process this in the slightest (I'm all too aware of how this would turn out in reality), so people who don't have to stand in front of kids everyday and explain to them why James Joyce is important should form their own opinions on it.
