Chalk

In the tradition of Christopher Guest’s zany mockumentaries (chiefly Best In Show), Chalk tells the story of several sweet yet vaguely inept high school teachers during a particular year early in each of their professional careers. Mr. Lowry (Troy Schremmer) has just changed careers after bottoming out in the business world. He’s greeted warmly by his fellow teachers, but given a painfully chilly reception by the students in his first class who deny him any participation beyond a cruel prodding of his lack of experience. Bossy PE teacher Coach Webb (Janelle Schremmer) fairs far better with the kids but this year must face new and unexpected tension with close friend Mrs. Reddell (Shannon Haragan) who was unexpectedly promoted to Assistant Principal and has now become too busy for happy hour at their favorite bar. Then there’s Mr. Stroope (Chris Mass) who just wants to win the “Teacher of the Year” and who’ll do anything to accomplish his goal.

The film has a remarkable talent for shaping very driven scenes disguised as meandering nonsense. It takes a simple lunch table scene shared between faculty and as they prattle on about funny happenings, we get to see who’s making eyes at who, who talks more sternly to who, who doesn’t fit in, and who takes charge of the group. There’s a keen eye on the dynamics of the school community and a very believable crafting of its many strained professional and personal relationships. The students are admittedly colored more broadly than the staff, but there’s still no real disrespect on the behalf of the production. Its objective is clearly to place the viewer in the awkwardly funny position of the poorly treated and often outright abused teachers, but there are as many warm and sensible kids in the crowd as there are brash troublemakers. At times, there truly are very moving bright moments where teachers and students connect in a wonderfully small silly, unsentimental sort of way. Other times are sadly marred with over the top goofiness. There’s a very weird line being drawn here between realistic whimsy and blatantly ridiculous farce. It’s clear to me the film benefits from taking the realistic approach to these situations, but every so often it steps over the edge and falls into a disjointing stupidity. Regardless, this is still a sweet comedy with strong characters and some great, subdued laughs.

Grade: B