47
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyWhat makes the film work is that this potentially lurid material is treated at all times with sensitivity and probing psychological seriousness.
- 75The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyThe A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyBy continually deferring dramatic tension, the filmmaker puts more weight on the movie’s closing scenes — which are abrupt but true to life — than they can handle.
- 60Film.comWilliam GossFilm.comWilliam GossBurdge is left to do much of the heavy lifting in terms of inviting the audience into her protagonist’s shaky state, and her performance boasts a remarkable emotional precision throughout — if ever there’s a reason to seek this one out, it would be for her.
- 50Slant MagazineChris CabinSlant MagazineChris CabinWe're only allowed an insufficient glimpse of the anxiousness and curiosity that drive these creatures, a tactic which feels suspiciously like hesitance masquerading as enigma.
- 50The DissolveMike D'AngeloThe DissolveMike D'AngeloA Teacher feels a bit like watching some fool cross a busy freeway on foot over and over again for an hour and change. There’s little to do but await the inevitable splat.
- 40VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeAs first features go, A Teacher demonstrates a willingness to provoke, but doesn’t seem to understand the minimum expectations most audiences place on films in terms of both incident and characterization.
- 40Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfLess a master class in inappropriate high-school relationships than the CliffsNotes version, A Teacher isn’t going to tell you anything Nabokov or "Election" didn’t.
- 40Village VoiceAndrew SchenkerVillage VoiceAndrew SchenkerWhen Diana's fixations begin to take over, Fidell seems ill-prepared to steer the film into strictly psychological territory, resulting in a project that loses its fraught sense of control at the same moment as its embattled protagonist.
- 40Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenLos Angeles TimesSheri LindenA flimsy episodic feature.