Teachers Review Teacher Movies Vol. 3: Dead Poets Society (1989), The Substitute (1996), English Teacher (2024 - )
Reviews that no one else could write.
Have you ever said, "That's not how that works!" when watching a movie set in your workplace? How about a movie where your job or career is glamorized or made to look easy? Are you a paper salesman that feels your career has been made a mockery of on The Office?
Teaching is one of those professions that's never depicted accurately or honestly. Enter Patrick (a middle school teacher) and Taylor (a former elementary school teacher) to review those movies about teachers, students, classrooms, and the crazy career path that is education.
Dead Poets Society (1989)
At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.
The following is an unlocked review, previously posted in the Summer of ‘89 series for paid subscribers. Like what you read? Sign up for paid subscriptions here and receive exclusive content every Monday.
Patrick: When Taylor and I appeared on our friend Jess Rolland's great podcast Better Than Bad? to discuss IMDB's highest and lowest-rated Robin Williams movies, we talked a lot about how, despite his synonymity with comedy, Robin's most acclaimed performances come from his dramatic turns. Did this come from the fact that we were discussing two dramas, Good Will Hunting and Merry Friggin’ Christmas? Yes. Is Merry Friggin’ Christmas supposed to be a comedy? I’m not sure. But Robin's greatest hits were either his more serious roles or the earnestness he brought to those comedies.
That was not the case, however, in 1989. Sure, he had already been nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, but that was for Good Morning, Vietnam, where the thrill of his performance comes from his improv skills, the comedic talent for which he was best known. It never got old, but everyone knew he could do that - he did it everywhere. Dead Poets Society was new territory for him and, as with everything he did, he was so damn good at it that it started a whole new branch of his career.
Desson Howe of The Washington Post reviewed the film in ‘89 and wrote, "I wish Robin Williams had been my English teacher. Perhaps Tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow wouldn't have been quite so dreary. Of course, I wouldn't have learned a thing…before you run off expecting Robin Williams Live: He not only turns in an acting performance (and a nicely restrained one at that), but he's not on screen half the time. Poets is about his influence, or teacher John Keating's influence…”
My 7th grade English teacher showed us this movie (along with another great teacher movie about a great teacher, Mr. Holland's Opus) and it basically did all of the work for him for like a week. Not only did it blow our minds, but I'm pretty sure we did the O Captain thing one day. I'm a 7th grade English teacher now and I have to resist the urge to show it to my students. Maybe they could love me just a sliver as much as Robert Sean Leonard and Ethan Hawke love Robin. But I doubt it.
The Substitute (1996)
When an inner-city Miami schoolteacher gets her knee broken after standing up to the school's gang leader, her mercenary combat specialist boyfriend goes undercover as a substitute teacher to take down the punk. Soon he discovers a conspiracy of criminals at work, and must reassemble his team from his last jungle raid to stop them.
Taylor: I’m not going to sit here and pretend that there is really anything realistic about The Substitute. That’s what makes it so fun!
But there’s one thing I did resonate with here. My teaching experience sucked. Like really sucked. It’s why I’m a former teacher, and that’s not a title I feel proud to have. And while Patrick is still a teacher and enjoys teaching, it sucked for him to watch me endure such a difficult school year.
Being the partner of a teacher is a full-time job in and of itself. And that's because teaching is hard, even at the best of times and with the best of students. When the dangers of teaching at an "urban school" (this has aged like shit, don’t get me started) put Ms. Hetzco in physical danger, boyfriend-of-the-year Johnathan Shale literally can’t help but intervene. Patrick didn’t beat anyone up on my behalf, but he did go to bat for me. Just…not with an actual baseball bat like Tom Berenger as The Substitute.
Patrick: Taylor and I saw a play recently set in an "urban high school" and that's normally something I find really discouraging. It's often completely disingenuous, full of what people imagine such a place to be, populated with stereotypes and half-thought-out characters used as mouthpieces for semi-formed opinions an author/playwright/screenwriter knows truly nothing about. I went into this particular production a skeptic and I left annoyed, my suspicions confirmed as they so often are.
How then, am I able to enjoy something like The Substitute, a movie so completely devoid of facts or realism? Well, for starters, exploitation cinema is often also devoid of opinions, which usually makes its escapism possible. This educationsploitation makes no false promises or implies to know next to anything. This is a movie where a guy poops his pants and that guy ends up being a really important character. It’s silly fun!
English Teacher (2024 - )
A high school teacher in Austin tries to balance the competing demands of the students and their parents in a world where the rules seem to change every day.
Taylor: Show creator and star Brian Jordan Alvarez has gained a new fan in me with English Teacher, which is saying something because I’ve pretty openly groaned about his TikTok career since he joined the app. When it comes to teaching, he really seems to get it.
The best friendships (trauma bonds) with coworkers that will last a lifetime. The constant administrative red tape that you can’t even pretend to understand. The guilty pleasure of being up to speed on student gossip even though that is so not what grown adults should be thinking about (it helps us teach better if we know what’s going on, right? Right?!) The teacher that just pisses you off. The crippling fear of your life flashing before your eyes on any given school day if you’re in the “wrong place at the wrong time.” The burning desire to make the world a better place through your work, but the heartbreak of knowing that, systemically, the chances are slim - and still choosing hope regardless.
Alvarez and his crew have their hand on a pulse rarely found and I can’t wait to see more.
Patrick: The thing that I like most about Mr. Marquez, the character played by Brian Jordan Alvarez, is that he only causes a stink when something actually matters to the kids. There's a ton of disgusting bureaucracy associated with this profession and I have a harder time than others letting a lot of it go. But Mr. Marquez doesn't complain about the endless paperwork or unnecessary meetings (probably because he causes half of those meetings himself) or anything else a teacher deals with that isn't teaching, he cares about what the kids care about. Whether in his classroom, after school, or in faculty meetings, he stands up for what he believes is right, what the kids need, what the kids want, and what will be important to them outside of their building and after 3:00p. He's not exactly very good at it, which is where the comedy comes from, and boy does he need to keep his personal life separate, but he means well. He thinks of the children first. You would be surprised how rare that is.
As Taylor said, the show gets it. Unlike, well, never mind...
Credit: Each plot synopsis from Letterboxd via TMDb.
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