Diagonaldi Very well executed

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

jfgibson73 The bottom line: this movie never gets anywhere near as funny as the first season of Eastbound and Down. I thought that the premise of Chalk sounded promising, and they did develop some interesting characters, but it didn't feel like very much happened, nor was there much payoff in the humor. The one laugh out loud moment for me came during a home visit. The student who was disrespectful in class turns out to be very well mannered at home, serving his mother and teacher wine ("Would you like to sniff the cork?"). The energetic P.E. teacher, the chorus teacher learning to be an administrator, and the overzealous math instructor who wants to win teacher of the year were all likable, they just didn't get arcs that were satisfying. We saw little bits of each that were sort of interesting, some longer bits that didn't really add much, and then it all got wrapped up. Personally, I get more laughs from 30 minutes of Kenny Powers teaching P.E.

fedor8 I saw this film at the Tom Cruise Scientology Laboratories Religious Propaganda Festival, and I must say the crowd absolutely LOVED it. Afterward, we all chanted and lost ourselves in a quick, pulsating rhythm of spirituality that is in the very nature of our alien beings... Xinatthrusta-humda!Seriously now. Why do some IMDb-ers start their comments with "I saw this film at such and such festival"? Who cares where you saw the film. As if the location and the circumstances matter. In fact, I saw "Chalk" in my bathroom while standing upside-down and juggling tennis balls with my feet. Does that make my experience any more or less worthy, interesting, valid?I see no problem in someone combining Christopher Guest's mockumentary style (very obviously quite influential here) with a bit of Woody Allen thrown in. The improvisations are quite solid, the cast is good (amateur or not) and fairly likable, and there is even a pleasant little song at the very end of the end-credits. However, there are no laugh-out-loud moments - unless, of course, if you were watching this film with an eager festival crowd who carried you with their unbridled, uncritical enthusiasm, almost forcing you to laugh along with them. The gags i.e. the observations about the teaching life are clever, somewhat amusing, and "cute", but hardly what one could call hilarious. Although an indie film, it succumbs to the old Hollywood formula sentimentality trap which has ruined man a comedy by infiltrating itself like a virus into the last third of the movie. I can't say I was annoyed by the quick deterioration of comedy to melancholic semi-schmaltz, but a mockumentary should end just as it had begun: with humor. I am a proponent of the "Seinfeld" school of "zero sentimentality" comedy, as opposed to the "cheap weepy drama twists" school of "Friends", an approach tailored toward easy-to-please sheep. Hence that is the one rule that they should have definitely obeyed in the Christopher Guest Manual of Making Fake Documentaries. Although not a perfect film, the makers of "Chalk" can find consolation in the fact that their little movie is much better than Guest's "A Mighty Wind", which was a major disappointment.I had never heard before either of the "Teacher of the Year Debate" or the "Spelling Hornet". Did they make this up, or do these two absurd events actually take place in American high schools? You are welcome to e-mail me with an answer to that one. (I can't be bothered to surf the net for that...) If so, then no wonder the U.S. pre-college education system is in such poor shape. Teachers debating in front of students over who should win "teacher of the year"?? Teachers being tested in spelling those ridiculous new slang words?? You gotta be kidding me...All in all, I consider "Chalk" to be a cut above the rest of the independent films coming out in recent years. It was interesting to observe that the makers of the movie thank a few dozen festivals for supporting them from the beginning - and yet the supposedly "hip", "underground", and "trend-setting" Sundance festival wasn't mentioned. However, this doesn't really surprise me. The reason Robert Redford and his cronies (initially?) ignored this film is simple: "Chalk" is a totally unpolitical film, lacking the left-wing propaganda bits that Redford looks out for.So my advice for "Chalk 2: The Sequel" is this: invite Michael Moore to have a cameo appearance in which he will mock a Capitalist or a policeman, and include a sub-plot about a dumb Republican teacher that everyone hates. That would definitely please His Royal Redness, Robert Ford the Red One...

ângelo fernandes This is a realistic portrait of what's the life of some teachers really is! Especially those moments that most of people don't realize they exist, like the teachers conversations on the Teachers Living Room; the disputes between them, the everyday challenges; the stress occasions with the kids, the "conquest" of the kids and the development of a mutual relationship, etc. As a teacher I saw myself in there portrayed, as I saw some of colleagues there too. Of course, that in a movie, which "pretends" to be as a documentary it can't summarize everything and all things in an hour and half [+/-] but still it is a great movie to see. I think what I did enjoyed more was the total absence of "this is good and this is wrong", that some movies are fulled in. In Chalk you can easily understand that are more than a simply reason to a teacher act in such way, be it good and less good.

djmoc A most enjoyable film especially for those, like my wife, who have been in education for many years. "Many a truth is said in jest" and this movie hits the nail on the head, in that it is very funny, endearing and true all at the same time. The world of teachers is a parallel universe as far removed from the students as the students are from the teachers...but sometimes the worlds meet and in the collision a new understanding is formed...sometimes. From a more philosophical point of view that is where I think the comedy had a point of view..."teachers are human too" with foibles and triumphs. How refreshing to see something about the teachers in contrast to all the relentless trash on TV and movies which place emphasis on the failure of education. YUK if only the world new how tough teaching really is. I only wish this movie could somehow go mainstream.