I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Seeing this movie was a terrible, excruciating experience, but since I'm very hopeful and optimistic person, I watched it all the way through, hoping until the very end it's just about to provide something. Anything. It didn't. This completely failed as a showcase of character study. If anything, it's a perfect study of how movies should not be made. Ever! First of all, the story practically didn't have any development. The teacher-student relationship is a given thing from the get go and the only observation you can safely make is that she's a lot into him, but his motivation is completely ignored. Is it flattering for him? Does he prefer older girls? Is he happy? Is it only physical/fun for him? Temporary, even? Well, I have nothing against unorthodox film-making, but just because a film aspires to be fancy-shmancy artsy-fartsy all-independent, it may not - and doesn't - serve an excuse for boring the audience to sleep with a completely flat story and shortage of content. In fact, this feels like a shopping spree with empty shopping cart leaving past cash-desk. Boo-hoo, an end of a terrible ride. Finally!

Hannah Fidell's directorial feature debut, 'A Teacher', is a disturbing film that has a brilliant performance from Lindsay Burdge. From the sulking score, to the long camera shots, this forbidden and illegal sexual tale spins out of control fast, but has a heavy psychological tone as we watch our main character descend into a steep downward spiral of madness and obsession.Burdge plays Diana, a high school teacher who seems to be a loner outside the classroom, but once in class, she opens up and is very charismatic. We are thrown into the middle of Diana's illicit relationship with one of her students, Eric (Will Brittain). We do not see how it all started, and we see scene after scene of the two having sex in different places whether it be in a car at night, Diana's house when her roommate is out for the night, or at Eric's parent's ranch house near Austin, TX.The pair seem to have the same feelings for one another, however the only thing we really see is a sexual relationship, though we clearly see that Diana is emotionally stunted and needs to have some gap filled in with this torrid affair. She even allows Eric to take control in the bedroom. soon we see that Eric is her whole life as she becomes very distant from her roommate and colleagues at school and when her brother comes into town, she quickly shuts down and leaves him sitting at the restaurant. It's evident that her affair isn't the first of its kind. When her roommate invites her to a party of people their own age, she wants to leave as soon as she gets there and spends the little time there texting Eric and looking at his pictures. It's become an unhealthy obsession now.After an exposing photo makes the rounds at school of a freshman girl posing topless, Diana becomes scared and asks Eric to delete all of the photos from his phone that she has sent. Once this happens, she begins to question herself and her actions, but still continues on. When an employee of Eric's ranch house almost catches the two of them in the deed, Diana calls the relationship off, but her unnatural obsession and sickness cannot be controlled, which leads to some very unfavorable moments, making the audience scream out "Nooo."Fidell's camera-work is impressive and reminded me of Darren Aronofsky's 'The Wrestler' as we see the steady-cam shot from the back of Diana as she walks through the school and on her jogs completely alone. It's very unsettling. Brittain plays the student lover very well as we never see him brag to his friends of his conquest, nor is he at all an annoying teenager or obnoxious. He is actually quite charming, level-headed, and always plays it cool, even when things spiral out of control. And then there is Burdge who does a phenomenal job in her role as she tries to box up her unnatural feelings all the while she seems wears her heart on her sleeve when it comes to her young lover.What keeps this film from being great is its repetitiveness. It's a slow descent into a psychotic obsession that shows the same thing scene after scene of the two character having sex, only in different locations. If there was a bit more character exploration, then 'A Teacher' would have received an A. But due to its inconsistencies a flaws it receives a C for effort and acting.

I have just read some of the above reviews and feel as though they have no emotional integrity whatsoever. When I watch a movie, I do not want to be spoon-fed information and told what to think. These are obviously the kind of films the above reviewers are accustomed to watching which is a great shame because they are missing out on something more beautiful and pure. By not being obvious, this film engages the mind of the viewer to look more closely at the subtext and form a unique opinion. Life is not black and white; there are many mysteries. A film that captures a truthful aspect of life is one that I always find interesting.Firstly, 'A Teacher' is one of the few movies I have actually seen where a female character's point of view takes the main focus. A very credible character with many human flaws instantly captivates me as I want to read into her actions and form an opinion based on what I notice about her behaviour. To me, she is an adult who, for some reason, is unable to move past her adolescence. There are a couple of clues in the text of the film that highlight her incapability to face the truth like a grown up- one being her refusing to talk about a serious matter regarding her mother when her brother brings it up in conversation. She is living in a fantasy and the relationship with her student allows her to hold on to this dream world in which she lives. The whole way through the film, you are waiting for the moment when reality finally hits home and this creates a beautiful suspense. The soundtrack is also very carefully placed and just hits the right moments. As soon as the film begins we are instantly drawn to this woman's state of mind from the unusually unsettling opening music. I think that each song in the movie has been specifically used to enhance the moods felt by this emotionally unstable schoolteacher. The film begins and ends. It is emotionally engaging and allows us to empathise with the characters as well as reprove them. The unpredictability of the film and the excellent performances held my attention throughout. There is no need to say there was a lack of storyline on screen. Get a heart and a mind and an attention to detail. A story can be told with no words at all. In fact, a thousand words can be portrayed in one simple action. This film has much more substance and desire than a film that needs a heavy script to portray intention. Definitely a thumbs up from me. It has been a while since I've seen a film as good as this.

As a character study, it doesn't work, since we never learn anything about the two leads other than that they want to have sex with each other.I don't understand the teacher's motivations for anything. Her sudden turn from rightly concerned that this will get out to insanely needy and obsessed? Don't get it, don't care much about it.The boy is similarly a cipher. He sleeps with his teacher until she starts acting like a lunatic and then gets his dad and the school involved. At an hour and 15 minutes it's hard to get any character development, let alone a plot, so saying that what this film wants to be is a great character study is missing the mark completely. All I could think about was what a huge controversy this would have been if the roles were reversed. Male teacher, female student? Everyone would be up in arms talking about how horrifically the student had been abused. I wished we could gotten a title crawl about how long this 'teacher' ended up in jail for, but no such luck.