School's Out is a well-produced, well-acted movie that is hamstrung with an increasingly ridiculous narrative. Just how ridiculous, we don't find out till the third act. But if schools in France have the slightest resemblance to the (private I gather) high school we see in this movie, the French education system has big problems.
The plot dictates that this is a school where: 1 An experienced teacher throws himself out of a classroom second storey window and into a vegetative coma. From what we see in the movie there is absolutely no investigation into the incident and relief teacher Pierre Hoffman is immediately hired to take Class 9-1 through to the end of the academic semester/year.
2 Bullying and fighting in the school grounds? Well Pierre seems to be the only teacher having any concerns. No one else, least of all the school administration, sees a problem.
3 For some strange reason most of the male teachers at this school are gay and the female teachers are frustrated. How frustrated? Well we do eventually find out that when the deputy principal for a start tries to attract Pierre's attentions by making pest calls to his mobile and finally crying into one of them. When she is discovered by Pierre and rejected, she promptly goes and smashes her head into a mirror in front of him(as you do). Again absolutely no follow-up by any of the characters. It's like this sort of thing happens in schools every day and it's the end of that "mysterious thread".
4 Pierre discovers at least half his class are engaging in some pretty, odd sort of extra-curricula activities after school. Yes, I think he may have mentioned it to another teacher, but we know they'll blow him off. We can see Pierre is rightly concerned, but does he approach any parents about his findings? Nope! In fact I don't think there's a parent to be actually seen in this movie. Just bizarre! We see Pierre creepily stalking these kids around the place, but then he makes virtually no effort to report any of the shady business to the obvious stakeholders, because ... it doesn't suit the plot line.
5 The class/school go on some sort of end of semester excursion to a big French country house/mansion where at a night time party, the teaching staff appear to rage harder than the kids. Pierre again, seems to be the only teacher doing any supervision of the mixed (??) dormitories. All the rest of the staff have flagged it. He sounds the alarm when 6 of his students, wait for it, steal a school bus and attempt a mass suicide, which is thwarted by the heroic actions of Pierre and another teacher. The bus crashes, pretty seriously. But here comes the good part. None of the kids are injured and again, it is made really clear, there is absolutely no disciplinary action taken against them. We see them all down the lake together, doing their little group thing, as if nothing at all has happened to even slightly disturb the pattern of their lives ... EXCEPT for ...
6 The end of the world, which I think we're expected to believe is about to occur, proving the kids' collective fears were right all the time. Cue the credits!
We never did find out categorically why the previous teacher tried to top himself, but I can't say I really blame him. If I taught in a school like that, I'd probably be looking for a beam to throw a rope across too. Seriously, there has to be a better way of making an apocalyptic drama, other than staging it in the grounds of a French version of St Trinians.
The plot dictates that this is a school where: 1 An experienced teacher throws himself out of a classroom second storey window and into a vegetative coma. From what we see in the movie there is absolutely no investigation into the incident and relief teacher Pierre Hoffman is immediately hired to take Class 9-1 through to the end of the academic semester/year.
2 Bullying and fighting in the school grounds? Well Pierre seems to be the only teacher having any concerns. No one else, least of all the school administration, sees a problem.
3 For some strange reason most of the male teachers at this school are gay and the female teachers are frustrated. How frustrated? Well we do eventually find out that when the deputy principal for a start tries to attract Pierre's attentions by making pest calls to his mobile and finally crying into one of them. When she is discovered by Pierre and rejected, she promptly goes and smashes her head into a mirror in front of him(as you do). Again absolutely no follow-up by any of the characters. It's like this sort of thing happens in schools every day and it's the end of that "mysterious thread".
4 Pierre discovers at least half his class are engaging in some pretty, odd sort of extra-curricula activities after school. Yes, I think he may have mentioned it to another teacher, but we know they'll blow him off. We can see Pierre is rightly concerned, but does he approach any parents about his findings? Nope! In fact I don't think there's a parent to be actually seen in this movie. Just bizarre! We see Pierre creepily stalking these kids around the place, but then he makes virtually no effort to report any of the shady business to the obvious stakeholders, because ... it doesn't suit the plot line.
5 The class/school go on some sort of end of semester excursion to a big French country house/mansion where at a night time party, the teaching staff appear to rage harder than the kids. Pierre again, seems to be the only teacher doing any supervision of the mixed (??) dormitories. All the rest of the staff have flagged it. He sounds the alarm when 6 of his students, wait for it, steal a school bus and attempt a mass suicide, which is thwarted by the heroic actions of Pierre and another teacher. The bus crashes, pretty seriously. But here comes the good part. None of the kids are injured and again, it is made really clear, there is absolutely no disciplinary action taken against them. We see them all down the lake together, doing their little group thing, as if nothing at all has happened to even slightly disturb the pattern of their lives ... EXCEPT for ...
6 The end of the world, which I think we're expected to believe is about to occur, proving the kids' collective fears were right all the time. Cue the credits!
We never did find out categorically why the previous teacher tried to top himself, but I can't say I really blame him. If I taught in a school like that, I'd probably be looking for a beam to throw a rope across too. Seriously, there has to be a better way of making an apocalyptic drama, other than staging it in the grounds of a French version of St Trinians.