The Lesson (2015)

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This literally felt like a film school mesh of style and (now) old-school torture porn. Don't get me wrong; the movie was well-made and shot, but it seemed like a bunch of ideas (Look at what I can do!) all edited together with the bulk of Angry Teacher thrown in for the majority of the substance.Is there a message here? Are there characters that you can stand behind? Can anyone really learn a lesson here? If you answered YES to any of those questions…I'm gonna nail gun you so hard nouns will spill out of your bloody orifice! And now. For your homework…find a more cohesive movie to watch.

This movie knows what it wants to be! The camera is excellent, glamorous wide-shots juxtaposed with gray small-town rut, and personal small hand-cam shots. Muted colors of violence, boredom and frustration versus literal enlightenment through physical torture. The cast is really solid, the movie educates us with it's own story. The music keeps and/or juxtaposes the scenes perfectly. The writer/director Ruth Plath is clearly someone to look out for in the future. The expertly composed pictures, the story of the story of modern society and it's relation to literature, the wonderful maelstrom of violence... Reminds me a bit of Nicolas Winding Refn's work. On a more metaphysical level then a really comparable one. I could go on and on and on.9/10 because like 3 scenes didn't work that well in my opinion. But that's just nitpicking.WATCH THIS MOVIE! It's really good.

The Lesson isn't sure what it wants to be - an indie love story mixed with horror, a micro budget revenge movie. This is its main problem - it is a bit schizophrenic in terms of is genre - hardcore horror fans might not like it, as not gory enough, indie film fans might find it not art-house enough, and then there's the fact that the bulk of the rant of the main character is hard to stomach in places. But the wit and intelligence of the script shines through, and the film keeps you teetering between two moral standpoints quite effectively.There are some really nicely observed moments placed throughout the film, like the flashbacks where the relationship between boy and mother is drawn out, and the subtle emotional abuse that the main female character is subjected to which leads to quite a gratifying and blackly funny twist at the end, for those with the patience to see it through.

If Ken Loach had ever produced a horror film, it would have looked very much like 'The Lesson'. This is a hugely thought provoking film whose portrayal of horror goes so much further and deeper than the scenes of violence. The film is firmly grounded in the real world, our world, with real people dealing with real issues. For the hard core chain saw massacre viewer, the film may take a while to get to the 'horror' scenes - but for me, the horror started from the moment the film began as we witness the appalling way people treat each other and how horrifically society fails them. Ultimately it is hard to say who is the monster and who the victim- in fact the most stomach churning scenes for me involved the domestic violence. Having said that Robert Hands is outstanding as the teacher. His mercurial performance is totally empathetic and mesmeric - at one moment terrifying , the next pathetic. Sign of a great film for me is that it makes you think as you watch it, it makes you think as you discuss it afterwards and it is still making you think days later. This film does that with knobs on.