A teacher's perspective
Added 11/10/2009
So I watched the preview, and I figured that this was a real documentary. It's actually supposed to be a comedy about the lives of high school teachers. This fact got me even more excited about the movie, as I'm a high school teacher right now. Unfortunately, this movie fails on so many levels, I found it to be practically unwatchable.
The actors are very good, particularly for a B movie, and the history teacher in particular is so good that it worries me he might actually be a teacher (and a pretty poor one at that). The kids in the movie are pretty good most of the time, but there are clearly a few times where they know they're watching strong acting, and giggle a bit. No big deal. The problems are with everything else.
Some bits are kind of funny, but other times, you're not really sure what you're watching. The jokes are repetitive, and sometimes very few and far between. Some try really hard to be funny and fall flat. There are lots of scenes which are pointless, such as the scene where one teacher feigns concern for a student with a large backpack. I think it was supposed to be funny, but it wasn't.
My girlfriend put it best. "It's not really funny, it's kind of...stressful." Filming is erratic and cuts from place to place frequently. The situations are true to real life, but not in a good way. Some of them make you laugh, others will make you angry, and there's not any progression of the characters as far as I can tell. This movie also feels really long when you're watching it. I felt like it was about 4 hours long thanks to the repetition and useless scenes, when it was really less than an hour and a half.
My advice - skip it. This movie had a whole lot of potential, but it's garbage.
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Great Surprise
Added 10/11/2009
This is a very entertaining movie. It is like "The Office" meets teaching. Some scenes were so real it seemed like I was really watching teachers and students in a classroom. I really enjoyed it. And I even bought a second one to give to my daughter, who is a teacher.
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hysterically funny
Added 5/6/2009
Chalk is an absolutely hysterical mockumentary from Morgan Spurlock and director/writer Mike Akel along with writer/actor Chris Mass. At first I, too, thought it was a documentary--the previews for it even had me fooled. However, it wasn't too long after I started watching the DVD that I realized this couldn't really be happening--and I was laughing harder while watching this movie than I've laughed during any movie in years. The acting is completely convincing despite the fact this so much of the relationships between the faculty--as well as what goes on between faculty and students--to be completely absurd. The cinematography works really well and the choreography works well in the many crowded scene inside the school throughout the picture. In addition, the plot follows the cast through what they present to us as being an entire school year; and the action moves along at a very good pace. You won't be bored!
As I'm sure you can imagine by now, nearly everything that could go wrong does go wrong. There are students who escape detention by climbing up through the roof so that the assistant principal, Mrs. Reddell (Shannon Haragan) can't find them. Moreover, cell phones ring endlessly while the most nervous, uptight new teacher Mr. Lowrey (Troy Schremmer) tries desperately to gain control over his class full of mischievous kids. There's also the somewhat masculine gym teacher Coach Lindsey Webb (Janelle Schremmer) who's very defensive about the fact that she is not attracted to other women. Coach Webb also specializes in gradually picking more and more fights with her peers and even her (now) former best friend, Mrs. Reddell, who became assistant principal after someone was "found guilty" and was forced to resign.
And there's more. We get a great performance by writer/actor Chris Mass who plays Jack Stroope, a third year history teacher who doesn't really know history as much as some of his students do (!!!); and even the cameraman joins in to play a cameo as one of the school janitors who "dropped a piano" prompting a huge investigation by Mrs. Reddell and other staff.
It may seem that I've given too much away but there's plenty more that I am leaving out here. The laughs go on and on. The character development is superb; and the young men and women playing the roles of students (which they are in real life) do an admirable job. Great!
The DVD comes with quite a few extras. These include an optional running commentary with Morgan Spurlock, writer/director Mike Akel, and writer/actor Chris Mass; brief essays by people involved in the making of this film about their favorite teachers; and there's a deleted scene involving Mrs. Reddell and the man who dropped the piano! We also get two or three shorts including the typical "day" in the life of a substitute teacher. Ouch!
Chalk is a riot and it's very creative as well. I highly recommend this film for people who enjoy comedies and mockumentaries. People interested in the real life school system just might enjoy this picture, too.
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skip this one
Added 4/10/2009
Morgan Spurlock has given us so many great movies. Can't believe he has anything to do with this one, since it's so bad. The concept is hilarious, but it goes on, and on, and on...and ON. Seems like it never ends. The characters have a seed of interest and potential, but nothing that is interesting to watch for a full movie.
Got this because I saw the preview and thought it was a real documentary. It's not. It's a mockumentary, much like Spinal Tap. That would be great, if it was funny. It's not.
Good concept, but not well done. My advice is to skip that one.
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Slow and Boring.
Added 1/16/2009
I could see the potential in this movie but I found this to be a little shallow. The history teacher made my head ache watching him try to communicate. The gym teacher annoyed the hell out of me, just watching her made me cringe. The Math teacher was moderately entertaining but at the same time way too egotistical. The only one who interested me was the PA and that's mostly because she is gorgeous. I don't know I think it could have been much more entertaining with better stories and I felt it jumped around too much. It was a pretty boring mockumentory. A better movie would have been the PA and her husband going at it.
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