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How Do I Reach These Kids? Detachment Trailer

By Steven Lloyd Wilson | Posted Under Trailers | Comments (19)

04262011_DetachmentAdrienBrody.jpg

Movies about teachers seem to be their own microscopic niche in which every film is almost exactly the same underneath the hood like sports movies with the losing-training montage-win the big game pattern. Teacher movies seem to go through the failing to reach these kids, realizing how to relate, reaching these kids in time for the AP test set of steps. That sort of hinges on the teacher not being entirely broken and indifferent though, which is why we classify those films as “fiction.”

Tony Kaye, the man who taught us the curb stomping wasn’t a sick break dancing move, brings us Detachment in just such a mold. You can tell it’s a very serious movie because Adrien Brody is sadder than a whole litter of fresh-kicked puppies for the duration of the trailer. And considering he makes out with Christina Hendricks, that’s some PhD level acting right there.

Here’s the obligatory plot summary:

Director Tony Kaye’s (AMERICAN HISTORY X) long-awaited film DETACHMENT stars Academy Award® winner Adrien Brody as Henry Barthes, a substitute teacher who conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form a bond with either his students or colleagues. A lost soul grappling with a troubled past, Henry finds himself at a public school where an apathetic student body has created a frustrated, burned-out administration. Inadvertently becoming a role model to his students, while also bonding with a runaway teen who is just as lost as he is, Henry finds that he’s not alone in a life and death struggle to find beauty in a seemingly vicious and loveless world.

Here’s the list of “holy crap he landed a hell of a cast for this indie film” actors: Marcia Gay Harden, Christina Hendricks, William Petersen, Bryan Cranston, Tim Blake Nelson, Lucy Liu, Blythe Danner, James Caan, and of course Adrien Brody.

And here is the trailer:









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Comments

Have they been spending most of their lives living in a gangster's paradise?

Posted by: admin at January 18, 2012 10:32 AM

Apparently it's hard out there for a substitute teacher.

That is one helluva cast, but the fast cut montage of weepy Brody-students-flowers felt a bit...off? I can't quite put my finger on why, but tonally that clashed with the rest of the trailer. Anyway, I'll be checking this out on Netflix.

Posted by: Groundloop at January 18, 2012 10:38 AM

Dunno about that, but I'm guessing that they've got to stand and deliver, with their body and soul.

Posted by: Ghisent at January 18, 2012 10:40 AM

As long as James Caan gets angry at something, I'm in.

Posted by: zeke the pig at January 18, 2012 10:48 AM

Okay, I was going to post something agreeing with you about the deplorable state of teacher movies. I was going to mention something about the movies/books/tv shows about teaching that are both wonderful and accurate, like Up the Down Staircase and The Class and the fourth season of The Wire, the things that somehow manage to encapsulate why we keep teaching even though we know that there will be no magical resolving moment, ever, even though it's stressful and it seems like everyone expects you to solve all the country's problems. Because the fact is that as exhausting and irritating as teenagers can be, teaching is an absurd and hilarious job, and it is never boring, and it requires creativity, and it is FUN. And I'm not a dewy-eyed first year teacher, either. I was going to post all that. And then this:

That sort of hinges on the teacher not being entirely broken and indifferent though, which is why we classify those films as “fiction.”

You know what? Fuck you.

Posted by: Becca at January 18, 2012 11:10 AM

bonding with a runaway teen
---
Um, I shouldn't have to point out that you can go to jail for that, should I?

Posted by: , at January 18, 2012 11:38 AM

Geez. The only word that comes to mind after watching that trailer is: meh. Not even a word. Just an utterance, really. Meh. Meh all over the place.

Posted by: Helcat at January 18, 2012 11:44 AM

The unfortunate thing is that kids don't learn anything useful anymore. They have taken away shop class and home economics, where they might actually learn a trade. Budget cuts, football, and teaching for a standardized test seem to be more important.

But I am sure this will be a good movie, it has a great cast. I just hope no one gets curbed, that was disturbing.

Posted by: MRod at January 18, 2012 12:32 PM

Becca, you beat me to it.

Posted by: Jana Jerusalem at January 18, 2012 12:39 PM

I feel sad for people who only had depressed broken teachers and think that's the entire field. No wonder people believe the crap in blatantly lying documentaries like Waiting for Superman. "My teachers were broken and uninterested; therefore, all teachers are broken and uninterested."

Posted by: Robert at January 18, 2012 12:57 PM

Becca and Robert- So much in agreement. Of course there are shitty teachers out there, but I love my career, and I love working with kids, and giving them more to work for than just their small-town goals.

Just because people go through public education doesn't mean they know how public education works.

Posted by: tawnia at January 18, 2012 1:13 PM

Becca, Robert, Tawnia: My apologies, my joke there was intended as a juxtaposition of the spunky new teacher cliche and Brody's character, but it does indeed read instead as a slap at the entire teaching profession.

Posted by: SLW at January 18, 2012 2:39 PM

Christina Hendricks, Lucy Liu, there's some hot teachers at this school.

Posted by: PG13 at January 18, 2012 3:57 PM

Do I need to mention "To Sir, With Love"?

Posted by: samantha t at January 18, 2012 4:44 PM

Glee did it.

Posted by: Bothari at January 18, 2012 5:23 PM

Ever notice that in most movies set in institutional places they don't have the overhead fluorescent lights on? Even though they're usually visible in the shots, they're never on. I get that they have to have movie lighting, blah blah blah, but I taught high school for six years and the atmosphere of teaching will always be flavored for me with the sickening pallor of fluorescent lights.

Hospitals, too. ER used to be practically shot in candlelight.

The only teaching movie I thought remotely captured the real thing is Chalk. Hilarious and painful. Check it out on Netflix instant. And they did use the real lighting.

Oh, and this movie looks a lot like Half Nelson. Just sayin.

Posted by: AM at January 19, 2012 12:51 AM

I caught this at the Tokyo Film Festival and it was easily one of the best films I saw last year. I cannot say enough about it. The performances and story left me thinking about it for weeks afterwards.

Posted by: Muteki at January 19, 2012 3:07 AM

Sheeeeeeeeeit.

Posted by: Senator Clay Davis at January 19, 2012 11:22 AM

I refuse to believe that Christina Hendricks is in anything less than that which is 100% awesome.

I blame that crappy-assed trailer.

Posted by: Hayden Tompkins at January 19, 2012 12:07 PM