A Teacher
A Teacher is a 2013 independent drama film about a female high school teacher's illicit sexual relationship with a male student that turns from infatuation into obsession. It is the first feature film directed by Hannah Fidell. Principal photography for the film took place in Austin, Texas.
The film had its premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2013. The film was released on video on demand on August 20, 2013, prior to being released in a limited release on September 6, 2013, in the United States.
Plot
The film starts with Diana Watts jogging, and driving to school, where she teaches English, to a class full of students. After school, Diana goes to the bar with her roommate and best friend Sophia. At the bar, Sophia finds out Diana is texting someone named Eric, she asks who he is and how she met him, and Diana replies she met him at school. Later, Diana waits in her car, and when a car pulls up, it turns out to be Eric. He gets in Diana's car, where they have sex.Diana and Eric talk after class ends and then kiss, She becomes nervous that someone will catch them, but she is shown being very happy. Diana then goes to the teacher's lounge, where teachers are discussing students who got caught smoking weed in the school parking lot. They invite Diana to join them for a drink after school, but she declines since her brother is going to be in town. She meets her brother, Hunter, at a restaurant to discuss their mother and how she is doing and how he is worried for her. Diana becomes overwhelmed and leaves.
Diana and Eric are seen together again, and she says she doesn't want to leave. Eric suggests she stay the night, but she declines. She tells Eric she is the happiest she has been in a long time. Back at Diana's home, she and Sophia discuss their plans for Thanksgiving. Sophia tells Diana that she's going to introduce her to Rich and Dan. Diana gets a text message from Eric to send a picture so he won't miss her as much. While Sophia is talking, Diana takes a suggestive picture and sends it to Eric. After holiday break, Diana returns to school. During lunch break, Jessica a fellow teacher, discusses how a topless photo of a student has been going around the school. Diana becomes nervous and realizes that the photo she sent Eric could easily spread like that one. She goes to Eric and asks him to remove the photo and he does. Diana becomes jealous of Eric when she finds out he has a date to the Sadie Hawkins dance, which she will be chaperoning.
Later, Diana and Eric meet at his brother Greg's house to have sex and then drive to a ranch. The next morning at the ranch, they have sex again; the ranch manager, James interrupts them but doesn't see anything. Diana becomes nervous that James is going to call Eric's father and could lose her job if he finds out. Diana says she thinks they should put their relationship on hold for a while. She goes off to the porch to be alone. Eric joins her and tries to seduce her, eventually getting rough and aggressive. She pushes him away and says angrily, "What's the matter with you?"
However, upon returning home she obsessively scours his Facebook photos.
The next school day, Diana asks Eric if they could talk after class. Diana tells Eric that she misses him and invites him to come over. During the conversation, Jessica comes into the classroom and sees them talking. Diana reacts with a professional air portraying it as a school matter.
At Diana's house, they begin having sex. She becomes unstable, desperate, and frantic and he is confused and concerned. She stops, pulls away and puts on a T-shirt. She leans against the wall going through a series of intense emotions from sobbing to laughing. She says that what they are doing is wrong though finds it funny. Diana's roommate returns unexpectedly. Eric prepares to flee from being caught, but Diana no longer cares if they are caught. Diana begs him to stay. He is now freaked out by Diana's behavior and leaves right in front of her roommate.
Diana then leaves the house and follows Eric to his house, where she sits in her car and calls his family's landline. Eric's father answers and complains she is calling late. She says it is an emergency and he agrees to get Eric, but comes back and says Eric is busy. She then sneaks up to Eric's bedroom window where he comes outside and is angry. She tells him they could work through this. He says, "What are you talking about?" Eric's father comes outside and is walking towards them. Eric tells her to leave and she does so.
After arriving at a motel, she receives a message from a staff member of the school stating that there is a problem with a student. Eric's father is at the school and it is important that she calls immediately. The film ends with Diana curling up on her bed and crying, realizing that Eric must have confessed to the school about their secret affair and she will be humiliated and has ultimately lost Eric.
Cast
- Lindsay Burdge as Diana Watts
- Will Brittain as Eric Tull
- Jennifer Prediger as Sophia
- Jonny Mars as Hunter Watts
- Julie Phillips as Jessica
- Matthew Genitempo as Dan
- Cody Haltom as Rich
- Lanie Overton as Lanie
- Chris Doubek as Eric's Father
- Don Hampton as James
Release
Box office performance
The film was released in a limited release on September 6, 2013 and made $4,684 from 2 theaters, ranking #87 on the box office chart. The film went on to earn a total domestic gross of $8,348. The film's widest release was in 7 theaters.Television adaptation
In February 2014, it was revealed that A Teacher would be adapted for television by HBO. Fidell would write and executive produce the series along with Danny Brocklehurst, the former showrunner of the UK television series Shameless. In August 2018, it was announced Kate Mara would star in the series and serve as an executive producer, while Fidell will also direct the series, set up at FX instead of HBO.Reception
Critical response
The film received mixed reviews from film critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film 32% from 31 reviews. Marsha McCreadie from RogerEbert.com wrote: "A Teacher will leave you feeling drained, even exhausted. That's about right for a movie about obsession, one with no resolution except waiting for the other thud to drop... Much of the movie takes place in dark interiors. The love-making scenes are steamy, seemingly passionate; risqué not pornographic. Happily, a little something is left to the imagination. Though after a while you're itchy to get out of the bedroom, or the old high school staple, the car. The "one-room" claustrophobia is reminiscent of being trapped in the love-nest of Last Tango in Paris... To her great credit, director Fidell – named by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film – takes on a tricky topic. She even gets us to empathize with the person in the power spot."The New York Post wrote: "A teacher sexually obsessed with the high school student with whom she's having an illicit affair gradually loses her bearings in an evocative but ultimately hollow indie drama. Writer-director Hannah Fidell makes the common indie mistake of thinking that a dramatic situation is all you need for a movie, but demonstrates an impressive restraint and an ability to manufacture queasy suspense without much dialogue." Ignatiy Vishnevetsky from The A.V. Club gave a positive review, writing: "Because contemporary indies tend to overvalue broad generational statements, A Teacher – which is candid, character focused, and only 75 minutes long – initially feels like a breath of fresh air. Very little time is wasted on exposition; when the movie starts, Burdge is already meeting for regular trysts with teenager Will Brittain... Writer-director Hannah Fidell works in a style that's arty but simple: naturalistic lighting, camera movement that always follows character movement, and a modernist score that conveys dread without ever suggesting outright horror."