Big Screen Peter: Bad Teacher

 

Editor’s note: Peter Lewis has agreed to use whatever it is you call his writing style to provide some measure of analysis to those folks who still go to a theater to see a movie.

review by Peter Lewis

Ah, just what we need! Another movie glorifying the culture of me.

“Bad Teacher” is directed by Jake Kasdan and stars Cameron Diaz as Elizabeth Halsey, a self-centered bitch whose sole aspiration is marrying rich (at any cost). These plans go awry fast and she’s left to figure out Plan B while enduring another year as a middle school teacher.

While this general premise seems promising, it falters as the starring cast is rounded out with cardboard characters. The goody-two-shoes foil to Halsey is Amy Squirrell (Lucy Punch), while Justin Timberlake plays Scott Delacorte, a sensitive substitute teacher fresh off a breakup. Oh! And it just so happens he is heir to a massive fortune. Completing the amorous quadrangle is Jason Segel as Russell Gettis, the down-to-earth gym teacher.

Halsey quickly decides bigger breasts will land the naïve and rich hunk. Short on cash, she decides to take it up a notch. Whether through minor embezzlement via the school car wash or lugging cans to cash in, there seems to be no end to her determination. All for the sake of sating her base desires and at a total disregard to everyone else around.

Of course, Halsey isn’t the only character displaying ersatz tendencies. Though positively upbeat, Delacorte is as in love with himself as he is the world around him. And despite feigning genuine care, it’s obvious that even the “perfect” teacher, Amy Squirrell, is only concerned with herself. The routine of sincerity is mere window dressing thinly disguising a sick hypocrisy.

Which is both muzzle and salvo for the film. Halsey is irredeemably bad. Bitingly open, her disdain for everyone and everything around her creates great and unexpected humor throughout the film.

And despite the rough edges of her character, Diaz nails the role with unyielding energy and absolute charm. It’s easy to forget just what kind of shit she is throughout the movie as its inevitably happy conclusion.

In a sense, “Bad Teacher” is the cage battle of adolescence all over again. The fat girl blindly follows the hot chick despite knowing better. The brown-noser can’t stand that the unconcerned and self-involved hot chick achieves more attention. The goofy guy from the gym just can’t seem to get anyone to notice him. It’s the teenage experience flipped on its head.

But the day-to-day life is ignored. We see now genuine interactions. It’s all just a humorous caricature of reality. It’s the train-wreck of self-centered reality television wrought on the silver screen. We laugh at the absurdity unfolding, but never really see much at all beyond a nice shiny veneer, a pretend reality that is good for cheap laughs, but not much more.

• Bad Teacher is playing at the Carmike 14 in Fort Smith. Link here for time and ticket info.

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