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Early on in this dreary would-be psychological thriller, the literary mandarin J.M. Sinclair, played by Richard Grant, shares with an interviewer his observations on the writing life. “Now, average writers attempt originality. They fail. Universally. Good writers have the sense to borrow from their betters. But great ... great writers ... steal.” He then breaks into a cocky grin and laughs wheezily, like Mutley on “Wacky Races.” I’m sure not on purpose; I trust Mr. Grant has been fortunate enough to have never been exposed to that cartoon.

The adage that Sinclair paraphrases may have, um, originated with T.S. Eliot or with Igor Stravinsky, who applied it, of course, to composers. And it’s a not entirely untrue and not entirely un-useful aperçu. Still, if you’ve been writing for a long time, even in the relatively unheralded trenches of criticism, you’re likely sick of hearing it. God knows I am. In any event, Sinclair’s observation, aside from adding dimension to his character (not a particularly interesting dimension, given how tired is his pet observation), also serves as, speaking of phrases we all ought to be thoroughly tired of, a kind of Chekhov’s Act-One-Gun for the plot.

“The Lesson,” directed by Alice Troughton from a script by Alex MacKeith , aspires to be high-toned but only gets to the peak of a cliché slag heap. The ostensible protagonist is Daryl McCormack ’s Liam, first seen being interviewed himself, speaking of his first novel, about a ruined patriarch trying to reassert power over his fraying realm. In a flashback, the unpublished Liam is summoned by “The Agency” (not the C.I.A.) to audition for a tutoring gig. Bertie, the son of literary lion Sinclair and his French wife Hélène ( Julie Delpy ), needs a leg up to get into Oxford. Young and pale and poor of attitude, Bertie ( Stephen McMillan ) resists Liam’s friendly suggestions about learning critical thinking and insults the guy at family dinners. Nevertheless, Liam gets the gig, moves into the family’s palatial manor (this is a world in which literary mandarin status still pays big), and starts putting Post-It notes on his mirror; observations on the family that he hopes will feed a literary work of his own.

The Sinclairs are one of Tolstoy’s unhappy families; an older son, Felix, committed suicide by drowning himself in the manor lake a few years back. In another excerpt from a public interview, J.M. gets into a snit when asked about his son’s death. Among other things, the tragedy seems to have blocked J.M.

Hélène takes to Liam to the extent that she wants to hire him directly, cutting out “The Agency.” In this movie, no one has ever seen any other movies, so Liam thinks this is an excellent idea. And he also very gladly signs an NDA. We also learn that the window of Liam’s room—which had once belonged to Felix (and the house does appear to have a lot of rooms, so why Liam’s been boarded in such a grief-weighted space doesn’t make much sense but go on)—looks directly into Hélène and J.M.’s bedroom, and one night Liam watches while J.M. performs cunnilingus on his wife. “Don’t do that, dude,” I said to the screen as this happened. “This is a border from which you cannot step back.” Oops, then Hélène sees him watching and smiles. “You’re in it now, pal,” I said to the screen. But honestly, I wasn’t that concerned.

Because, come on: this is one of those movies that goes on for an hour and forty minutes because someone doesn’t have the common sense to get the hell out of Dodge twenty minutes in. When J.M. asks to read Liam’s novel-in-progress and offers his own work for Liam’s delectation, the subsequent comparing notes session goes poorly, and Liam contrives to get some of his pride back, helped by an explosive (or so the movie hopes) discovery.

When all the dominoes fall, it’s so neat, so pat; there’s no credibility, and with that gone, any opportunity for emotional resonance goes pffffft as well. Some might expect this picture to be redeemed by juicy performances, but that’s not the case; while none of the performers phone it in, the script gives them only the most commonplace ideas and states to convey. “The Lesson” is a wash. 

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Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

The Lesson (2023)

Rated R for language and some sexual content.

102 minutes

Richard E. Grant as J.M. Sinclair

Julie Delpy as Hélène Sinclair

Daryl McCormack as Liam Sommers

Stephen McMillan as Bertie Sinclair

Crispin Letts as Ellis

• Alice Troughton
• Alex MacKeith

Cinematographer

• Anna Patarakina
• Paulo Pandolpho
• Isobel Waller-Bridge

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‘The Lesson’ Review: A Fine Cast Classes Up a Barbed, Brittle Literary Melodrama

Richard E. Grant and Daryl McCormack are writers mutually feeding off each other in a diverting chamber piece that doesn't shy from some recycled ideas.

By Guy Lodge

Film Critic

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Films about fictitious great writers often stumble when it comes to the character’s actual writing: Viewers must suspend disbelief that a lofty literary reputation has been built on the purplest of screenwriter-devised prose. A blackly comic melodrama in which writerly ego, ambition and insecurity do increasingly destructive battle, “ The Lesson ” gets around that trap by folding questions of authorship into its arch country-house mystery: Who is writing what, and to what extent it matters, are the questions that keep director Alice Troughton and screenwriter Alex MacKeith’s mutual debut feature interesting, even as it slides into occasional, overheated cliché.

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But something feels off from the moment he arrives at the property’s imposing iron gates, and not just because Sinclair — not altogether unusually for a brilliant, isolated novelist — turns out to be an aggressively frosty misanthrope. His wife, highbrow French art curator Hélène (Delpy), is scarcely much warmer, but more accommodating of the outsider: At her behest, Liam is treated as part of a profoundly unhappy family, joining the table for their terse, awkward dinners together, in the very seat once occupied by Bertie late older brother, who died by suicide some years before. Yet there’s more to the Sinclairs’ collective misery than meets the eye, and if that sounds like a setup for a good novel, Liam agrees — as he begins noting observational details on Post-it notes that he ill-advisedly leaves on his bedroom mirror. (MacKeith’s characters are all booksmart but movie-dumb.)

“Good writers borrow but great writers steal,” says Sinclair (not the kind of man to easily reveal his first name) on more occasions than is required for viewers to understand its narrative significance. Liam may be filching from his employers’ lives for inspiration, but Sinclair isn’t averse to a little creative larceny himself — not least when, thawing to his polite admirer, he invites Liam into the writing process for his long-awaited new novel, which is proving oddly hard to finish. Grant, ideally cast, plays Sinclair’s braying, stentorian self-regard to the hilt, prompting viewers to wonder just how much of his reputation is down to talent and how much to bullish entitlement. It’s a grandiose performance well-tempered by McCormack’s more clear-eyed cool, revealing more cunning to Liam’s deference as the film goes on.

If it’s the conclusion of Sinclair’s novel that causes all the trouble — Liam notes that its final third feels like the work of another author altogether — it’s perhaps more meta than intended that the film’s own third chapter goes slightly awry in its tonal shift, with multiple latent hostilities finally coming to the surface in overly predictable, near-farcical fashion. Yet there’s a high irony threshold to the performances, as well as to Troughton’s glassy, reserved direction, that keeps the careering script in check. The filmmaking continually balances broad gestures with finer ones: Isobel Waller-Bridge’s score is prominently discordant, but countered by the restraint of Anna Patarakina’s canvas-toned lensing. “The Lesson” feels an edit or two away from its best form, but that kind of becomes the joke.

Reviewed at Soho Screening Rooms, London, June 8, 2023. (In Tribeca Film Festival — Spotlight Narrative.) Running time: 103 MIN.

• Production: (U.K.-Germany) A Bleecker Street presentation in association with Moin Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, UK Global Screen Fund, Film Constellation of a Poison Chef, Egoli Tossell, Jeva Films production. (World sales: Film Constellation, London.) Producers: Camille Gatin, Cassandra Sigsgaard, Judy Tossell, Fabien Westerhoff. Executive producers: Andrew Karpen, Kent Sanderson, Martin Heberden, Jens Meurer.
• Crew: Director: Alice Troughton. Screenplay: Alex MacKeith. Camera: Anna Patarakina. Editor: Paulo Pandolpho. Music: Isobel Waller-Bridge.
• With: Daryl McCormack, Richard E. Grant, Julie Delpy, Stephen McMillan, Crispin Letts. (English dialogue)

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Review: Literary scheming will only get you so far. So endeth ‘The Lesson’

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“Average writers attempt originality,” declares Richard E. Grant’s fictional acclaimed author J.M. Sinclair — more than a bit smugly — in the prologue to “The Lesson.” “Good writers have the sense to borrow from their betters. Great writers steal.”

Adhering to Sinclair’s philosophy, this neo-noirish literary thriller cribs rather liberally from other examples of the genre, from Ira Levin’s “ Deathtrap ” and Stephen King’s “ Misery ” to the more recent “ Intrigo: Death of an Author ,” with above-average results.

Enlisted to tutor the renowned writer’s teenage son, Bertie (Stephen McMillan), at their idyllic, sun-drenched family estate, aspiring scribe Liam (Daryl McCormack) figures he’s landed a dream gig.

But as he preps the sensitive young Bertie for his entrance exams at Oxford, Liam soon realizes that the Sinclair household harbors more than its share of dark family secrets, starting with the tragic drowning of another son, Felix, several years earlier.

As tensions between the creatively impotent Sinclair and his French artist-wife, Hélène (Julie Delpy), grow more palpable, it becomes apparent to Liam that he isn’t the only one with a hidden agenda.

The always-up-for-anything Grant (who made an Oscar-nominated impression as hard-living Lee Israel confidant Jack Hock in Marielle Heller’s “ Can You Ever Forgive Me? ”) plays Sinclair with an ideal blend of pretention and barely contained desperation.

He proves well matched with handsome Irish actor McCormack, recently cast as Emma Thompson’s attentive male escort in “ Good Luck to You, Leo Grande .” Liam’s wide-eyed, eager-to-please demeanor serves as a handy front for some decidedly more calculated deeds.

Together the pair proceed to smudge the dividing line between mentor and protégé, while Delpy’s tight-lipped Hélène patiently keeps to the sidelines, awaiting the perfect opportunity to contribute a wily plotline of her own.

In her handling of a screenplay by Alex MacKeith, British TV director Alice Troughton (“Doctor Who”) has done her homework, tapping into Hitchcock and Polanski for stylistic, elegantly photographed inspiration. Meanwhile, MacKeith’s script takes a page from Patricia Highsmith when it comes to character dynamics and matters of social climbing .

Those influences can’t help but draw unfortunate attention to the predictability of a story that could have benefited from one more twist, especially during a languid third act, which needed to ratchet up the tension by several notches.

But in the thoroughly capable hands of Grant, Delpy and McCormack, whose interplay has been playfully choreographed to the 1-2-3 tempo of a waltz-infused score by composer Isobel Waller-Bridge (Phoebe’s sister), the film proves as pleasingly undemanding as a typical summer read: neither a legit page-turner, nor easy to put down.

‘The Lesson’

Rating: R, for language and some sexual content Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes Playing: Starts July 7 at Landmark Theatres Sunset, West Hollywood; Laemmle Town Center 5, Encino; Laemmle NoHo 7, North Hollywood

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The Lesson review — this literary thriller is a masterclass in tension

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★★★★☆ There’s a moment late into the second half of this literary thriller where Richard E Grant delivers the most exemplary and unexpected piece of screen acting. His character is an ageing British author called JM Sinclair, described as “the most revered writer in the country”. He is sitting in the study of his alarmingly huge country estate (JM is clearly on JK’s royalties), recovering from a stinging altercation with his young Irish amanuensis, Liam (Daryl McCormack). During the exchange, Sinclair’s talent was questioned, his reputation impugned, and a terrible secret almost slipped out. And so, still shaking from the emotional fallout, our older protagonist’s face twists rapidly from a demented half-laugh to a grimace of rage, a lip tremble of near tears and then

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‘The Lesson’: Sharp literary drama curdles into melodramatic mush

Great performances by richard e. grant, julie delpy and daryl mccormack initially elevate this british thriller about the writing life.

What makes an ending? That question looms large in “The Lesson,” in some ways intentionally, in other ways not.

Impeccably acted — by Richard E. Grant, Julie Delpy and Daryl McCormack in the main roles — the initially combustible story fizzles out in melodrama. This literary thriller revolves around a pair of writers: Grant’s prickly J.M. Sinclair, considered the most revered author in England but facing a bit of a block as he puts the finishing touches to his latest work, and McCormack’s Liam Sommers, a novice writer making a living as a tutor while he struggles to finish his first novel, in longhand. When Sinclair’s sexy yet neglected wife, Hélène (Delpy), hires Liam, who wrote his thesis on Sinclair, to prepare their sullen teenage son Bertie (Stephen McMillan) for his upcoming Oxford entrance exams, it looks like sparks will fly.

And so they do. The arrangement Liam has just walked into involves Grant’s stern paterfamilias coping with, as it turns out, not just a surly adolescent and a chilly wife, but a family rendered dysfunctional by profound loss.

That’s not a spoiler. The film opens with Liam giving an interview about his debut novel, which is described in just that way — as the story of a “brooding patriarch presiding over a grief-stricken family” — as the interviewer asks Liam where he got the idea for it. “The Lesson” is his answer, told in flashback.

Good writers borrow; great writers steal, as Sinclair says over and over in the film, capably directed by Alice Troughton, a director of TV series making her feature debut. (Apparently, first-time screenwriter Alex MacKeith took that maxim to heart. The line comes from T.S. Eliot.) And accusations of literary theft figure prominently here, after Sinclair and Liam trade manuscripts one day, each asking the other to read his work. For the great author, it’s a request for proofreading; for Liam, it’s a chance to get advice from his brilliant artistic hero.

Liam is no slouch in the brains department. But when he speaks his mind too freely, daring to critique the ending of Sinclair’s novel, it opens up a fissure in their once-frosty relationship, which had started to thaw into a kind of warm mentorship. Strong feelings are stirred, and secrets percolate upward in this tense and warily unhealed household, like bubbles through the water of the lake that lies at the bottom of the garden, in which Liam has been forbidden to swim.

So far, so good. Delicious, even. The first two acts of the “The Lesson” are a delicate dish of ambition, pride, resentment, feelings of failure and other spicy emotions. The cast is flawless, down to Crispin Letts as the Sinclairs’ butler: tightly wound and tight-lipped, with the ability to keep secrets of his own, as you will learn.

But just as Sinclair seems to have missed the mark with the ending to his book, at least in the eye of Liam, so too does “The Lesson” — initially so full of suspense, cagey maneuvering and surprise — take a turn for the obvious, devolving into a tale of a taboo love, sexual jealousy, betrayal and violence.

Echoing Liam’s review of Sinclair’s work in progress, I’d call the first two acts of the film cleverly constructed, fresh and fascinating, yet marred by a climax and conclusion that are unworthy of what came before. If there’s a lesson here, in a marvelous movie that curdles into easy mush, it’s that endings — or at least the great ones — are hard.

R. Area theaters. Contains strong language, some sexuality, brief nudity and smoking. 103 minutes.

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Movie Review: ‘The Lesson’ provides a spicy literary thriller

This image released by Bleecker Street shows Daryl McCormack in a scene from “The Lesson.” (Anna Patarakina/Bleecker Street via AP)

This image released by Bleecker Street shows Julie Delpy, left, and Daryl McCormack in a scene from “The Lesson.” (Anna Patarakina/Bleecker Street via AP)

This image released by Bleecker Street shows Richard E. Grant in a scene from “The Lesson.” (Anna Patarakina/Bleecker Street via AP)

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The egos are as vast and thorny as the gardens on the lush estate of a prominent author in “ The Lesson ,” an entertaining and erudite chamber piece about a master, a tutor and a family after loss.

This is a story that, in different hands, could have easily turned maudlin or melodramatic, but director Alice Troughton, writer Alex MacKeith and composer Isobel Waller-Bridge opted instead for wry lightness within the construct of a slow-burn thriller. It’s as though “The Lesson,” and everyone involved, is winking at the audience through the serious material that lingers, intentionally, on the fine line between pretentious and provocative.

Daryl McCormack , of “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” and “Bad Sisters,” plays Liam Sommers, an aspiring writer who has accepted a job tutoring the son of world-famous author J.M. Sinclair (Richard E. Grant), who also happens to be his literary idol. But the film begins with Liam on a fancy stage, being interviewed about his novel about a fading patriarch and a grief-stricken family that the moderator calls one of the most striking debuts of the year. The movie is a memory prompted by that very standard interview question: What was your inspiration?

Anyone in the business of asking artists questions about inspiration knows, on a certain level, that at best you’re only getting a very brief version of one person’s highly sanitized truth. At worst it’s just a plausible sounding fabrication, safely constructed in the rearview mirror. J.M. Sinclair, in the YouTube interviews that Liam watches on repeat, coyly speaks about how all great writers steal but he’s not one, you imagine, who would publicly own any thievery. He is as precious about the singularity of his works and his talent as, in his words, the average writers who attempt originality and “fail universally” and the good writers who have the “sense to borrow.” But it all helps to plant the seed that you’re about to watch a literary heist unfold, though perhaps not the one you might expect.

The Sinclair family is the picture of upper-class posturing, with a household staff and a feigned formality fitting of someone who is always in control of the narrative, even at the dinner table in the company of only his son, Bertie (Stephen McMillan), and wife, Hélène (Julie Delpy). When he queues up Rachmaninoff as their dining music and Bertie protests, he challenges his son to give him three good reasons why — a snobbish test that only shuts down the conversation. It’s also quite the introduction to an author whom Liam has worshipped. Never meet your idols, etc, etc.

Liam is ostensibly there to help Bertie, a quiet and tortured Chalamet-type, prepare for entrance exams to study English literature at Oxford. But he has his own motives too — he’s writing a thesis about Sinclair and at work on his own book. Why would a family that insists on a nondisclosure agreement and utmost discretion hire someone with such a glaring conflict of interest? Well, that’s just one of the many mysteries for the audience to navigate in this maze of secrets, shame and scandals, including the somewhat recent suicide of the eldest Sinclair boy who was, it’s suggested, a more promising writer than Bertie.

McCormack, Grant and Delpy are a deliriously captivating group to watch. Grant, so adept at comedy, is prickly and terrifying as this intellectual tyrant who is unafraid to crush anyone in his path with casual cruelty, as when he asks Liam for help because he’s “not a real writer.” And McCormack once again excels at playing a shrewd, underestimated outsider. Liam has a few Tom Ripley talents up his sleeve that he uses to his advantage at key moments.

As Liam says of Sinclair’s newest book, the third act in the film feels like a bit of a jarring departure from the fun escalating tension of the first two acts. But “The Lesson” is worth a watch as a tightly crafted film made by and for adults unafraid of some rhododendron metaphors and casual Tchaikovsky talk.

“The Lesson,” a Bleecker Street release in theaters Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “language and some sexual content.” Running time 104 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

MPA Definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr .

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‘The Lesson’ Review: Richard E. Grant Steals Show In Slow-Burn Tale Of Literary Larceny – Tribeca Film Festival

By Damon Wise

Film Editor, Awards

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Though it doesn’t exactly have the same warm, melancholic charm, Alice Troughton’s elegant literary thriller The Lesson could give star Richard E. Grant the kind of late-career bump that last year’s Living afforded Bill Nighy. An Oscar nom might be a little fanciful at this stage, but a BAFTA shot is a no-brainer, with Grant on top form as a mercurial, narcissistic British author. Co-star Julie Delpy might also find new offers coming in, showing a stiletto-sharp new side to herself as his enigmatic wife.

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The prologue lays out the premise: young novelist Liam Sommers ( Daryl McCormack ) is giving an interview about his acclaimed new book. Immediately, Chapter One takes us into flashback mode, with Sommers on his way to take up a teaching post with the legendary J. M. Sinclair, a writer whose once-glittering career took a knock after the tragic death of his son Felix. Sommers’s job is to tutor Felix’s teenage brother Bertie (Stephen McMillan) and coach him through to a prestigious university place, but Sinclair is sceptical about his son having the chops to pass the exam — and frequently tells him so.

At first, this suggests a cuckoo-in-the-nest scenario, complete with sinister Post-It notes, but after a frosty start the imperiously rude Sinclair takes a shine to the young man. Well-read, and with a photographic memory, Sommers is also useful in the I.T. department, which comes in handy during Sinclair’s frequent tech meltdowns (“We’ll make a thief of you yet,” he encourages). Sinclair even trusts Sommers with his long-delayed new novel Rose Tree , which Sommers agrees to read on condition that Sinclair casts an eye over his own long-gestating novel, Tower 24 . But when Sommers fails to pay the correct obeisance and criticizes Sinclair’s book for its weak final chapter, Sinclair lets rip and trashes Sommers’ work with withering savagery. “We’re not peers,” he sneers. You’re my proof-reader .”

In the film’s last chapter, Sommers sets about taking his revenge, and a plan starts to take shape after he discovers a mysterious room, locked since Felix’s death. But although the twist is telegraphed pretty early on — perhaps deliberately so, given Sinclair’s posturing as some kind of book-of-the-month-club buccaneer — things end with a satisfying surprise that reveals the true architect of all this intrigue.

It’s not especially commercial nor especially austere, occupying a strange middle ground between Hope Gap and Tár . And although the hero of the piece is ostensibly Sommers, played with subtle shades of Tom Ripley by Good Luck to You Leo Grande ’s McCormack, the standout, inevitably, is Grant, who’s on fire here as the domineering patriarch whose winner-takes-all attitude is just a storefront: behind the bitching and bombast there’s just a sad, hollow man who’s lost everything he loved, and knows it.

Title:  The Lesson Festival:   Tribeca  (Spotlight Narrative) Director:  Alice Troughton Screenwriter: Alex MacKeith Cast:  Richard E Grant, Julie Delpy, Daryl McCormack, Stephen McMillan, Crispin Letts Running time:  1 hr 42 min Sales agent:  Film Constellation

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‘The Lesson’: Review

By Fionnuala Halligan 2023-06-13T15:20:00+01:00

Richard E. Grant relishes his role as an domineering novelist in Alice Troughton’s twisty debut

Source: Bleecker Street

‘The Lesson’

Dir. Alice Troughton. UK/Germany, 2023. 103mins

A thriller-ish drama about two writers – master and servant, literally – with a troubled teenage son thrown into the mix views like airport fiction come to life. With Richard E. Grant as the best-selling author and Daryl McCormack as his biggest fan, this is a slickly-packaged and appealing primetime TV-friendly drama which bows at Tribeca before a release in the US through Bleecker Street on July 7, undoubtedly as a prelude to landing on a prestige TV or streamer service.

A watchable, polished, undemanding and vaguely familiar package

Episodic director Alice Troughton ( Baghdad Central ) makes her feature debut with this lower-budgeted twisty drama, and producers were lucky to land McCormack in the lead as his star is in the ascendant. Initially coming across as an update of  Ordinary People –  with Julie Delpy in the Mary Tyler Moore role – this has pulpier aspirations, as the doomed lake at the front of the central mansion turns into a swamp. Rounding out the quartet is talented young Scottish actor Stephen McMillan ( Boiling Point ), whose character is left to fend for himself as the adults become increasingly entangled in the weeds.

Eminently watchable Irish actor McCormack plays aspiring writer and Oxford literature graduate Liam, who has a photographic memory and a sideline in tutoring. The film is framed in flashback, meaning his fate is never in jeopardy. Early shots of him disrobing for a swim seem rather gratuitous, although they do establish a watery theme before he decamps to a grand house in the British countryside to tutor his literary hero J.M. Sinclair’s (Grant) troubled son Bertie (McMillan), who also aspires to a degree in literature at Oxford. There has been a tragedy in the family – the suicide of an older, adored sibling – and Sinclair’s frosty French art collector wife Helene (Delpy) is trying to help her son in the face of this trauma and his father’s domineering disapproval.

There are attempts to bring class differences to the mix – Liam’s unfamiliarity with classical music, for example – but it’s hard to pitch this correctly in such a multi-national household, unless you deliberately read Liam being Black and Irish as a visual/aural code which hopefully isn’t the case. It’s almost a relief to read in the credits that the house itself is located in Germany because the film just doesn’t seem rooted in any culture, whether that be academia, literary, or Oxford/UK. It works better as the same sort of nowhere-land in which last year’s Amazon hit  All The Old Knives  was set.

Whatever the case, this family are crashing, unlikable snobs, and that’s the message which Troughton is keen to emphasise as she edges Alex MacKeith’s screenplay out of dark comedy into thriller terrain. Liam, himself a naked opportunist, is desperate to ingratiate himself with his idol, but soon discovers Sinclair a deeply unpleasant domestic tyrant (a character trait which Grant tackles with suitable relish). So now, how far will Liam go? Why does Sinclair keep a server running in his dead son’s locked bedroom? Will Liam’s photographic memory come in handy apart from being able to quote chunks of Sinclair’s text back at its author? And why does the film keep repeating Sinclair’s mantra about how every writer needs to steal?

A score by Isobel Waller-Bridge can occasionally be a little too emphatic in its quirkiness, but is mostly used as a cheeky motif to enliven proceedings. The cast approaches the task with enthusiasm, particularly Grant. The actor works better with repressed fury than abandon and is excellent at slyly comic turns, but having to follow the script into increasingly lurid terrain is a shame for the controlling character he has created. A watchable, polished, undemanding and vaguely familiar package, the main surprise in The Lesson is that that this is the debut screenplay from MacKeith and not a literary adaptation itself.

Production companies: Poison Chef, Egoli Tossell, Jeva Films

International sales: Film Constellation

Producers: Camille Gatin, Cassandra Sigsgaard, Judy Tossell, Fabien Westerhoff

Screenplay: Alex MacKeith

Cinematographer: Anna Patarakina

Production design: Seth Turner

Editing: Paolo Pandolpho

Score: Isobel Waller-Bridge

Main cast: Richard E. Grant, Julie Delpy, Daryl McCormack, Stephen McMillan, Crispin Letts

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Screen Rant

The lesson review: grant & mccormack are calculated writers in gripping thriller.

You’ll find you can’t get enough of this tantalizing world, with its incendiary commentary on originality, inspiration, and what makes good writing. 

The Lesson has one of the best opening scenes of the year, and it gets even more exquisite from there. Although the film broadcasts how the story will end, there are still plenty of twists and turns that will surprise and unsettle you. Directed by Alice Troughton from a screenplay by Alex MacKeith, The Lesson is a mystery/thriller that will leave you watching with bated breath. The story unfolds at a steady pace, and the characters, each of whom is manipulative in their own way, are exciting, the mystery lush and introspective. You’ll find you can’t get enough of this tantalizing world, with its incendiary commentary on originality, inspiration, and what makes good writing.

Liam Somers (Daryl McCormack) is a tutor and short story writer whose resume impresses Helene Sinclair (Julie Delpy) enough to hire him for the summer to tutor her son, Bertie (Stephen McMillan). Bertie is a budding writer who needs to get into Oxford lest he disappoint his father, J.M. Sinclair (Richard E. Grant), a successful author who’s in the midst of finishing his latest novel. The death of his son Felix, a talented writer who would have gone far, hovers over the family. When Liam is asked to read Sinclair’s latest book in exchange for notes on his own novel, his first, their relationship dynamic shifts, and Liam is surprised to learn quite a few secrets, as well as what it takes to write a compelling novel.

The script is clever. Even though it occasionally plays into type, MacKeith’s fascination with writing, with what makes a good story, and what it takes to get it, is engrossing. Troughton’s directing builds tension by turning the film into a game of betrayal, the need to uncover the truth less interesting than the character dynamics and the way their actions affect the story. The thematic throughlines are fantastic, and the payoff is nearly as thrilling as the buildup itself, which is a difficult feat to pull off considering the suspense that permeates the film from the start. The film’s conclusion is remarkably satisfying and gives us much to ponder about after all is said and done.

What makes a good author? How do you measure great writing, and what are you willing to do to make a successful comeback? The Lesson ponders these questions rather thoughtfully, filling the story with a sense of desperation and dread, resentment, and underlying anger. If the movie was a novel, it would certainly be considered a page-turner. Once it gets going, and does so right from the start, you won’t be able to look away. There’s a sense of elitism on Sinclair’s end; he’s an author who considers himself one of the greats, and his ego is huge. And yet he’s threatened by new talent, opting to put Liam and Bertie down instead of mentoring them. His relationship with everyone is strained, and the intensity never abates, building to a climactic third act that earns its moment.

The Lesson not only has a tremendous, eerie score by Isobel Waller-Bridge, but contains phenomenal, understated performances from its cast. Richard E. Grant is simultaneously restrained and unhinged in his role, wielding Sinclair’s bitterness and arrogance like a sword as he lashes out, slowly unraveling as the film goes on. Grant casts a powerful shadow over everything, controlling and manipulating everyone around him, but gives Sinclair room to unravel. Daryl McCormack (who was in last year’s acclaimed Good Luck To You, Leo Grande ) is able to balance outward respectability with eagerness and frustration. It’s nuanced and tempered, and the outcome of his performance benefits the finale greatly, and he expertly bounces off of Grant’s portrayal. Delpy, though she gets less to do, plays the long game in terms of Helene’s role. She’s distant and seemingly cold, but she’s patient and calculated as well, and it’s lovely to witness the myriad of emotions that swiftly play across her face.

The Lesson is gripping and compelling, enhanced by its cast and score. It knows precisely what kind of movie it is and, though at times predictable, has much to say and a sophisticated, unpretentious style to go along with it. The film lays bare its intentions while keeping some of its cards close. It’s the kind of movie you could spend hours discussing; it will linger on your mind as you dissect everything that occurs. The Lesson is an indelible film, and one that will only be enhanced by a second watch.

The Lesson is now playing in theaters. The film is 102 minutes long and rated R for language and some sexual content.

The Lesson Review

The lesson in  The Lesson  is very simple: “Great writers steal.” It certainly seems to be the motto of writer Alex MacKeith and director Alice Troughton (despite her extensive work on  Doctor Who , she is not related to the Second Doctor), whose film is pulled from an array of forebears, not least Bong Joon-ho’s  Parasite .  The Lesson  is about an aspiring author, played by Daryl McCormack, hired to provide Oxford admissions tuition to the son of prestigious writer J.M. Sinclair, played by Richard E. Grant. Staying in an outhouse on the Sinclairs’ estate, he grows closer to the family and uncovers secrets about Sinclair’s inspirations.

It is well-trodden terrain, and none of the twists in the tale come as a surprise. Yet sometimes that is perfectly pleasant, especially when handled by such formidable actors. McCormack, having made a name for himself with  Good Luck To You, Leo Grande  opposite Emma Thompson, has delicious resonance, which lends his character a Shakespearean aura. Indeed, the parallels with  Hamlet  come thick and fast, Grant relishing his sinister Claudius-like patriarch, and Julie Delpy making for a scintillating Gertrude as Sinclair’s art-seller wife. The interplay between the three, with Stephen McMillan doing a fine job as the Sinclairs’ son, makes for tantalising Sunday-teatime fare.

Troughton, too, shows promise in her command of the film’s stylistic elements. J.M. Sinclair’s penchant for Russian composers is elegantly mirrored in Isobel Waller-Bridge’s score, largely consisting of a mock-Shostakovich waltz repeated ad nauseam throughout, which pairs well with Anna Patarakina’s cut-glass cinematography. Between the acting showcases,  The Lesson  consists of some rather artistic tableaux, evidently inspired by artists including Monet and Millais, and breathless montage deftly edited by Paulo Pandolpho. There’s something delectable and dark about it, like a fine claret drunk copiously while watching reruns of  Poirot .

‘The Lesson’ Review: Richard E. Grant & Daryl McCormack Are the Best Parts of This Turbulent Thriller

With stellar performances across the board, especially from Richard E. Grant, there is a willingness to forgive this film's narrative shortcomings.

If there is a lesson of its own to take away from the thriller that is The Lesson , directed by Alice Troughton and written by Alex MacKeith , it is that less can often be more. Some of the most authentically tense films are those that rely on ratcheting up the tension and never overplaying its hand. Think of how Michael Haneke ’s enduring 2005 film Caché just kept withholding much of its particulars which were integral to creating its sense of dread. Even in moments of confrontation, the way it teased out a growing unease that was also more grounded ensured we could never look away from the panic playing out before us.

There was ephemeral violence, yes, but it was tied to the more eternal terror that comes from observing lies slowly collapsing around people. When you then have talented actors to embody the characters who find themselves caught up in this more subtle descent into destruction, the experience that is crafted can be even more shattering than one built around spectacle. There are echoes of this in The Lesson , which had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival , though they nearly become drowned by a conclusion that threatens to wash its strengths away entirely. And yet, a more than capable cast manages to weather most of its persistent narrative storms to make for a well-acted thriller where you hang on every single word the characters utter that still never quite reaches the full potential of its story.

This all begins with an author talk where we meet Liam Sommers ( Daryl McCormack ) being asked about a book with a particularly revealing story that he has written. It is an opening that is the first of a couple of different moments which, while never living up to this comparison, felt a bit reminiscent of last year’s titanically good TÁR . The difference to it is that this conversation is the furthest into the future the story will get, making it one of many films that strives to create a sort of dramatic irony via forced narrative framing when, more often than not, this would have been far more impactful had it been revealed at the end. Regardless, we then jump back in time to learn about how Liam is an aspiring author who has recently gotten a gig that his agent all but tells him he has to take. Specifically, he will go to work for famed author J.M. Sinclair ( Richard E. Grant ) and his wife Hélène ( Julie Delpy ) by tutoring their son Bertie ( Stephen McMillan ) for his upcoming exams. He will do so at their estate that, as the wealthy are wont to do, is shut off from the rest of the world. The stage is then set as we come to see that all is not well with the Sinclairs following a loss that has brought into focus existing fault lines. The naive Liam then finds himself caught up in their domestic discord.

RELATED: The Greatest Movie Drunk Was Allergic To Alcohol

'The Lesson' Is Most Thrilling When Playing Everything More Subtly

The first two-thirds of the film are where this thriller is at its best. Seeing McCormack, a younger actor who was spectacular in last year’s Good Luck to You, Leo Grande , and Grant, a veteran performer who is great in just about everything including the recent Can You Ever Forgive Me? , begin to circle each other is just proper fun. Each brings a real verve to their respective characters, making it easy to get swept up in piecing together their motivations even as the escalations start to get a bit out of hand. McCormack embodies a cautious yet sly inquisitiveness, making Liam's trait that he can remember nearly everything he has read a fitting one as we can feel him taking everything in. He is charming and charismatic in a manner that seemingly begins to win over the family. Grant as the Sinclair patriarch is his perfectly menacing opposite, a cruel man who has too won over the adoration of readers just as he instills a fear in his own family. An early dinner scene where he swoops in without saying much of anything before dictating the music they must listen to is delightfully dreadful.

Of course, this is merely the first course of what becomes a full melodramatic meal for Grant to sink his teeth into and chew up until there is not a morsel of the scenery he has not consumed. Just the leering look in his eyes or the echo of his laughter makes him more of a vulture than a man, willing to feast upon even his own family if it were to come to that. Delpy, always a dynamic performer even in small moments, captures the impact this has had on the matriarch in every deflection she must do. As Liam goes about his tutoring and eventually assists Sinclair with his latest book, the discoveries he begins to make bring everything to a breaking point. The longer the film stays in a sweet spot of subterfuge, with every stolen glance across the isolated estate and barbed remark carrying with it a potential for conflict, the more the film has us in its spell even as closing stumbles nearly breaks it all into pieces.

The Ending of 'The Lesson' Nearly Loses the Plot

All of this to say, without going too far into the particulars, it is a film that thrives in its uncertainty and falters when it ultimately arrives at a more concrete, cliché conclusion. It effectively flirts with being an erotic thriller without fully diving in and dances with more existential questions about the nature of authorship before dulling this intrigue with a rather blunt ending. Its cast all keep it afloat, but only just. It would make for an interesting double feature with the Glenn Close film The Wife , but disclosing the precise reasons as to why would be to reveal too much. There is something fascinating about how the film, a thriller about storytelling that itself ends up hinging upon the writing of an ending, threatens to come apart as it approaches its own closing. That it holds together is a testament to the cast who it feels like are battling against clumsy escalations that go bigger and louder when the quieter moments carry with them a far more tactful deployment of emotion. Had it been more patient in its conclusion, it might have been as great as the ending written in the world of the film.

The Lesson is in theaters starting July 7.

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2023, Mystery & thriller, 1h 43m

What to know

Critics Consensus

Even if it isn't always quite as clever as it seems to think it is, sharp performances from an outrageously talented cast make The Lesson worth learning. Read critic reviews

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The lesson videos, the lesson   photos.

Liam (Daryl McCormack), an aspiring and ambitious young writer, eagerly accepts a tutoring position at the family estate of his idol, renowned author J.M. Sinclair (Academy Award nominee Richard E. Grant). But soon, Liam realizes that he is ensnared in a web of family secrets, resentment, and retribution. Sinclair, his wife Hélène (Academy Award nominee Julie Delpy), and their son Bertie (Stephen McMillan) all guard a dark past, one that threatens Liam's future as well as their own. As the lines between master and protégé blur, class, ambition, and betrayal become a dangerous combination in this taut noir thriller.

Genre: Mystery & thriller

Original Language: English

Director: Alice Troughton

Producer: Camille Gatin , Cassandra Sigsgaard , Judy Tossell , Fabien Westerhoff

Writer: Alex MacKeith

Release Date (Theaters): Jul 7, 2023  limited

Box Office (Gross USA): $284.7K

Runtime: 1h 43m

Distributor: Bleecker Street

Production Co: Bleecker Street Media, Egoli Tossell Film, Jeva Films, Poison Chef, Constellation Productions

Cast & Crew

Richard E. Grant

JM Sinclair

Julie Delpy

Hélène Sinclair

Daryl McCormack

Liam Sommers

Crispin Letts

Stephen McMillan

Bertie Sinclair

Alice Troughton

Alex MacKeith

Screenwriter

Camille Gatin

Cassandra Sigsgaard

Judy Tossell

Fabien Westerhoff

Andrew Karpen

Executive Producer

Kent Sanderson

Anna Patarakina

Cinematographer

Paulo Pandolpho

Film Editing

Isobel Waller-Bridge

Original Music

Seth Turner

Production Design

Henning Jördens

Art Director

Verena Schlünsen

Set Decoration

Sabine Böbbis

Costume Design

Dixie Chassay

Martin Heberden

Jens Meurer

Film Editor

Critic Reviews for The Lesson

Audience reviews for the lesson.

There are no featured audience reviews for The Lesson at this time.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Intimate thriller has strong language, suicide references.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Small acts of compassion can have a big impact. Un

Liam is intelligent, polite, and respectful, and s

Lead character is played by a multiracial actor of

Character drowns in lake. Physical fight involves

Oral sex portrayed on-screen a couple of times. Ki

Language includes "f---ing hell," "f--k," "f--ker,

Characters smoke cigarettes. They also drink alcoh

Parents need to know that The Lesson is a gripping thriller with strong language, bullying, scenes of a sexual nature, and suicide references. The story centers around Liam (Daryl McCormack) who comes to the home of rich, successful writer J.M. Sinclair (Richard E. Grant) to tutor his teenage son, Bertie …

Positive Messages

Small acts of compassion can have a big impact. Unacknowledged grief may become destructive. Money and power can corrupt.

Positive Role Models

Liam is intelligent, polite, and respectful, and shows compassion and understanding toward his student, Bertie. Mr. Sinclair is arrogant and pompous. He bullies his son and puts his work before everything else, creating an atmosphere of fear in his home. His wife, Hélène, is quietly manipulative. She shows concern for Bertie, but ultimately puts her own needs first. Bertie is initially rude and disrespectful toward Liam, but gradually shows his behavior comes from a place of fear and low-self esteem, eventually forming a trusting friendship with his tutor.

Diverse Representations

Lead character is played by a multiracial actor of Irish and African-American descent. He is portrayed as kind and intelligent next to the more negative qualities of the White people he works for. There is only one female character, who is sidelined for much of the film, but becomes more central toward the end.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Character drowns in lake. Physical fight involves holding a character underwater. Death of a child and suicide mentioned. Person shot in a black and white movie watched by a character, but no gore is shown. A bloody cut is seen on a character's hand. Occasions when a parent verbally and emotionally bullies their teenage son.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Oral sex portrayed on-screen a couple of times. Kissing and caressing. Characters shown in bed with the implication sex has taken place -- character seen naked from behind.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language includes "f---ing hell," "f--k," "f--ker," "s--t," and "bastard."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters smoke cigarettes. They also drink alcohol including spirits, beer, and wine, once to the point of intoxication.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Lesson is a gripping thriller with strong language, bullying, scenes of a sexual nature, and suicide references. The story centers around Liam ( Daryl McCormack ) who comes to the home of rich, successful writer J.M. Sinclair ( Richard E. Grant ) to tutor his teenage son, Bertie (Stephen McMillan) for a university application. Liam shows many positive qualities, including compassion, though other adults around him are arrogant and manipulative. There are references to suicide and the death of a son, and a character drowns on-screen. Strong language includes "f--k" and "s--t," and there is smoking and drinking -- to the point of intoxication in one instance. Oral sex is portrayed and a male character is seen fully naked from behind. Sinclair is verbally and emotionally bullying toward Bertie. More of a slow-burn drama than a fast-paced thriller, the film is well acted by a strong cast and maintains tension throughout, but the mature content and themes make it unsuitable for children and younger teens. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (1)

Based on 1 parent review

A Lesson in Revenge

What's the story.

In THE LESSON, Liam ( Daryl McCormack ) accepts a position at the home of legendary author J.M. Sinclair ( Richard E. Grant ) to tutor his teenage son, Bertie (Stephen McMillan). As he settles into the family's impressive home, cracks begin to show and masks begin to slip, uncovering deadly secrets that defy fiction.

Is It Any Good?

While the setup feels familiar -- a budding writer takes a position at the home of his successful idol and gradually ingratiates himself into the family -- this British thriller never feels as formulaic as its plot may sound. Strong performances from the entire cast elevate an impressive first feature film screenplay from Alex MacKeith, while director Alice Troughton, best known for her TV work, makes a similarly strong debut into movies with The Lesson . Characters are complex and layered, scenes revealing small snippets of family life unfolding in imposing spaces behind half-closed doors. A playful score by Isobel Waller-Bridge creates a weirdly unsettling atmosphere amid the tension and oppression of the family dynamic that adds further intrigue and cements the film's distinctive tone. It's a dark affair, from which viewers may emerge as bewildered as its lead, though aware that they've borne witness to something subtly unique.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the theme of facades in The Lesson . What were different characters trying to portray to others and why? How did their true feelings and personalities reveal themselves during the film?

Grief is a theme in the film. How were the different characters grieving and how did it affect their lives and the way they interacted with others? What preventive measures can you take in order to avoid destructive behavior?

Liam shows compassion toward his student, Bertie. How did this impact Bertie's life? Why is compassion such an important character strength ?

Talk about the strong language used in the movie. Did it seem necessary or excessive? What did it contribute to the movie?

How did the movie portray sex and relationships? Was it affectionate? Respectful? Parents, talk to your teens about your own values regarding sex and relationships.

Movie Details

• In theaters : July 7, 2023
• Cast : Daryl McCormack , Richard E. Grant , Julie Delpy
• Director : Alice Troughton
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Black actors, Female actors, Female writers
• Studio : Bleecker Street
• Genre : Thriller
• Character Strengths : Compassion
• Run time : 102 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : language and some sexual content
• Last updated : November 13, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – The Lesson (2023)

September 22, 2023 by Robert Kojder

The Lesson , 2023.

Directed by Alice Troughton. Starring Richard E. Grant, Julie Delpy, Daryl McCormack, Stephen McMillan, Crispin Letts, and Tomas Spencer.

Liam, an aspiring and ambitious young writer, eagerly accepts a tutoring position at the family estate of his idol, renowned author J.M. Sinclair. But soon, Liam realizes that he is ensnared in a web of family secrets, resentment, and retribution. Sinclair, his wife Hélène, and their son Bertie all guard a dark past, one that threatens Liam’s future as well as their own.

According to Richard E. Grant’s revered author J.M. Sinclair in director Alice Troughton’s (from a script by Alex MacKeith) twisty thriller centered on writers The Lesson , good writers borrow, and great writers steal. Even Quentin Tarantino, one of our greatest living writers and directors, has admitted to taking ideas from other stories to put his spin on them. Then there are consumers constantly bemoaning that there seem to be no original ideas. Once again, J.M. insists they don’t exist. Or maybe he’s just a hack with secrets to hide.

Whatever the case may be, J.M. Sinclair has found great success in life, pressuring his teenage son Bertie (Stephen McMillan) to follow in his footsteps. The boy is an Oxford candidate and certainly intelligent but requires a tutor to help them learn the house style of that prestigious school while also broadening his literary knowledge. Even if J.M. Sinclair weren’t busy trying to finish a novel, he doesn’t have the necessary patience for teaching, often coming across as the stereotypical narcissistic writer with a lack of understanding for his son’s emotions, practically going out of his way to neglect his wife Hélène (Julie Delpy). 

As such, the wealthy family brings aspiring writer Liam Sommers (Daryl McCormack) to their estate, hiring him off the books and with nondisclosure agreements to help Bertie get into Oxford. Liam also happens to be a superfan of J.M. Sinclair, hoping that the famed author will take a look at his novel. It also turns out that Liam takes J.M. Sinclair’s public advice to heart, comfortable making sticky notes of his experiences around this family to implement into his novel. Meanwhile, Hélène gives Liam flattering looks from a room that conveniently overlooks hers while J.M. Sinclair struggles to satisfy her sexually.

Liam is mostly a professional tutor, which comes through in a capable performance from Daryl McCormack), but as his fascination with J.M. Sinclair deepens through physical proximity and conversation, he begins finding ways to get into his good graces, such as assisting with basic computer troubleshooting to ensure his writing never disappears, which opens the author up to reading each other’s work and offering sound advice. Needless to say, J.M. Sinclair is a self-centered egomaniac (played to perfection by Richard E. Grant) who tears down Liam’s writing, setting in motion a more sinister narrative arc. And one of the film’s only strengths is the skill with which Daryl McCormack maintains the character’s composure while slowly letting through cracks of mental breakdown as his actions become mischievous and unhinged.

There is also a depressing backstory for the rich family that also comes back into play. However, The Lesson spends so much time setting up its characters and premise that by the time the filmmakers make that shift into thriller territory, there aren’t many surprises left, meaning that it’s also never really suspenseful. Even as a commentary on the narcissism of some writers pr the toxic expectations some fathers place on sons, the film lacks profound insight. The chess play between Liam and J.M Sinclair is moderately engaging due to the performances but is lost in a narrative that never quite finds its verve and rhythm.

Flickering Myth Rating  – Film: ★ ★  / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check  here  for new reviews, follow my  Twitter  or  Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

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Bluey Wedding Special Is an Emotional Roller Coaster With a Too-Real Lesson for Dogs (and Humans) of All Ages

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To all the unsuspecting parents who fired up Disney+ on Sunday, hoping to chill out with the family and laugh along to the new Bluey special… how are you holding up? 

The Australian ‘toon has always been more substantive than many of its contemporaries (we’re looking at you, Peppa Pig!), but this latest special is on another level. It’s a thrilling half hour of television — a fast-paced, sharply-written, deeply thoughtful examination of the human spirit. Also, two dogs get married!

While Bluey’s younger sister Bingo remains blissfully ignorant of what “selling the house” really means, seven-year-old Bluey is painfully aware of how things are about to change — as are Bluey’s classmates, who erupt in an adorable group howl when she breaks the news of her impending departure. 

What unfolds next is sheer chaos from start to finish. Frisky calls off the wedding because she finds out that Radley is already planning their future without consulting her, sending Chilli and the flower girls on a wild goose chase to track down the runaway bride. A run-in with the police, a harrowing butterfly attack and an emergency pee break later, Chilli finally realizes where Frisky must be hiding: “the lookout where Frisky and I used to come as teenagers to… um… think!” (That one was just for the grown-ups.) 

In a moment of brutal honesty, Chilli admits that she doesn’t want to move either, but she believes that it could be good for their family. When Bluey suggests that it could also be bad for them, she concedes that it’s impossible to know either way. All she can tell her daughter is, “I guess we’ll see.”

Speaking of Calypso, teaching Bluey that fairytales have happy endings “because life will give us enough sad ones” was real as hell. Was that lesson part of her school-approved curriculum? Probably not. But it’s a literal dog-eat-dog world out there, and she’ll be damned if she doesn’t prepare these puppies for it.

Anyway, we’re fully invested in (and deeply concerned about) every bit of developing doggy drama at this point. Is Frisky seriously calling off her wedding? And are the Heelers really moving to a new city?! As it turns out, the stress rash we’ve acquired has been for naught. Not only do Rad and Frisky tie the knot after reconciling, but Bluey’s family also doesn’t follow through with their big move. The sheepdogs who bought the Heelers’ house stumble upon another property they like better, a discovery they only made because the kids got Bluey’s “lucky coin” stuck in a binocular machine at the park earlier in the episode. You have to admit, it’s a fun twist. 

While this ultimately gives Bluey the happy ending she wanted, the timing couldn’t be less convenient. Think about it: The Heelers spent hours (days?) packing up every last piece of furniture in their house, then loaded it all into a moving truck, only to find out mid-move that the buyers changed their mind. After all that time, energy and expense wasted, we aren’t surprised when Bandit dramatically rips the “For Sale” sign out of the ground. Moving is a pain!

It’s a lot to process, we know. But that’s what comment sections are for, so drop your thoughts about Bluey’s latest special after grading it in the poll below.

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Winton and the Terries parents do end up together! That was Winston’s dads house that the sheepdogs see at the end

Dissapointing ending.

All that emotional build up, for nothing. Nothing changed, nothing happened, it was basically a dream episode where nothing that happened matters.

Not to mention, the house was sold, you can’t just back out at that point. Kinda dumb.

Yeah! I expect more realistic situations in my talking dog cartoons!

I do get where you are coming from. It does feel like a bit of a copout. However I do think it is very subjective to each of our own experiences in this matter. We experienced both ends of this story(line) in that our first planned move failed as we decided to not go through with it, and eventually 3 years later we did end up moving. So a part of me also wanted them to go through with it and deal with that side of the story – as we did, but only because it was closer to my own story.

But maybe they still do :)

I think in the end Sunny is right – we should remember it’s just a cartoon in the end.

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Johnny Oleksinski

‘civil war’ review: a torturous, overrated movie without a point.

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Running time: 109 minutes. Rated R (strong violent content, bloody/disturbing images and language throughout). In theaters.

All director Alex Garland had to do was title his new movie “Civil War” for it to instantly be deemed Very Important by tastemakers.

Who cares that the script is lousy? Or that the acting is monotonous? Or that the story amounts to a series of gruesome killings that you’d rather not sit through?

Doesn’t matter. It’s essential!

The gnarly film is about a modern-day domestic war in America and is, therefore, a prescient warning to us all, we’ve already been told with conspicuous enthusiasm by lefty newspaper op-eds.

They insist: You, too, could soon be tied up at a roadside gas station and tortured by dudes with Southern drawls.

But really Garland’s movie is no more vital to the discourse than “ The Purge ,” and is about 1% as entertaining.

“Civil War’s” shtick is that it’s not specifically political.

For instance, as the US devolves into enemy groups of secessionist states, Texas and California have banded together to form the Western Forces. That such an alliance could ever occur is about as likely as Sweetgreen/Kentucky Fried Chicken combo restaurant.

Still, one deadly encounter with a soldier played by Jesse Plemons leaves no doubts about what actual party he is supposed to represent.

The Western Forces are duking it out with the loyalist states who follow the president (Nick Offerman) — a fascist in an illegal third term — as well as the Florida Alliance and the New People’s Army.

Lest you arrive expecting cool battles, the fights are mostly just three or four guys shooting three or four other guys until a slightly bigger clash at the end. All we get are tiny tussles in a war supposedly affecting 350 million people.

Garland, with his incessant vagueness, is clearly aiming to keep the story universal rather than divisive. 

However, considering his movie is set in a land of folks who love to discuss and argue about the news, it’s odd that none of the characters ever give concrete details about what’s going on. How did this conflict start? What does anybody stand for? Who knows?

Avoiding the elephant (and donkey) in the room makes the whole shebang feel fake, with the help of some lethargic actors.

Our guides through this not-believable hellscape are a quartet of unlikable war journalists whose lives we barely learn about beyond their resumes. 

Kirsten Dunst plays Lee Smith , a hardened frontline photographer for Reuters who’s become numbed to violence and danger over the years.

Joel (Wagner Moura) is her reporter sidekick, who gets a thrill out of the battlefield … until he doesn’t. Moura’s performance, by the way, leads me to believe his numbskull journo couldn’t convince a telemarketer to talk to him.

Stephen McKinley Henderson is an aging New York Times writer named Sammy, who’s just about had enough. And Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) is a young, aspiring fotog who worships Smith and tags along for the ride. 

They embark on a road trip from New York City — which is being bombed — to Washington, DC, in an attempt to interview the press-hating president who is hiding out in the White House.

The plot plods along — they drive a bit, guy gets shot, they drive some more, guy gets shot — and the dialogue is bottom of the barrel.

At one point, Joel walks into a clothing store in an eerily calm small town and says, “Are you guys aware that there’s a pretty big civil war going on all across America?” 

This is what the New York Times called “a terrifying premonition of American collapse”!

Dunst is the best of the four performers , but a bitter, been-there-done-that reporter is such an old cliche. She adds nothing new to the archetype except her name.

A movie about a fictional second civil war isn’t a terrible idea, I’ll grant.

But how about instead of torturing viewers with a parade of point-blank executions, Garland tries making a well-executed film?

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The Teachers’ Lounge review – a masterclass in playground politics

A teacher’s intervention in a spate of thefts upsets the balance of her school in Ilker Çatak’s taut, Oscar-nominated drama

T he first thing you notice is the score: an apprehensive, pulsing single note, plucked on violins and tightly strung nerves, it’s a choking panic attack in musical form. And it’s a masterclass in using a stripped-back, minimal approach to gripping effect, evident throughout Ilker Çatak’s terrific, taut, Oscar-nominated drama.

The setting is a German secondary school, a location the restless, bustling camera leaves only once. Çatak adds to the oppressive feeling by shooting in a tight, boxed-in aspect ratio: the building may be airy and open plan, but the walls are closing in.

Like Laurent Cantet’s The Class , the school serves as a microcosm, with wider world issues of racial profiling and socioeconomic divisions playing out in miniature. But it works both ways, with a mirror image of playground politics reflected in the mean-girl manoeuvring in the staff room. There’s another parallel with The Class : both films focus on idealistic but fallible teachers who, through an impulsive misstep, upset the delicate balance of their workplace.

Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) is new to the school, her commitment and optimism still unblunted. When the suspicion for a spate of thefts falls on a particular boy, based on little more than his skin colour, she acts to exonerate him, capturing, through dubious means, evidence that seems to implicate a fellow member of staff. But the accused teacher, single mother of Oskar (Leo Stettnisch), another child in Carla’s class, doggedly protests her innocence. Benesch is superb, her face a glazed mask of panic as the shockwaves resulting from her actions shake the very foundations of the school.

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‘Girls State’ Review: One Nation, Under Girls

Balancing confidence with broad smiles, the high school students in this documentary understand that camaraderie goes hand in hand with political ambition.

By Natalia Winkelman

In 2018, over 1,000 boys gathered in Texas for an elaborate, weeklong program aimed at students interested in politics. This meeting of teenage minds — part of a countrywide initiative sponsored by the American Legion — was captured in the Sundance hit “ Boys State ,” a vérité chronicle of the event, where participants are elected by their peers to different positions in government.

Considering that movie’s success, it hardly comes as a surprise that the filmmakers, Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, used their momentum to produce the follow-up “Girls State.” The directors shot the documentary in 2022 at Lindenwood University, in St. Charles, Mo., where, the movie repeatedly notes, it’s the first time that the boys and girls groups are holding their events simultaneously on the same campus.

If you are imagining coed frivolity or drama, though, think again: These motivated girls are only concerned about the boys insofar as their proximity highlights the lack of parity between their programs. We meet Emily Worthmore, one of the film’s central subjects, as she ticks off achievements. At Girls State, Emily, a conservative Christian, hopes to be elected governor, a goal she shares with the left-leaning Cecilia Bartin, who canvasses the lunchroom by shouting from a chair. Others, including Nisha Murali, eye seats on the program’s Supreme Court, which the attendees anticipate will hear an abortion case.

If the vibe of “Boys State” is that of a Young Republicans conference, the atmosphere at “Girls State” suggests a freshman orientation. By turns giddy and gutsy, the students share in communal songs, icebreakers and empowerment sessions. They seem to intuit that camaraderie goes hand in hand with political ambition, and that they shouldn’t take the curriculum, or themselves, too seriously. Here, cute selfies and résumé building receive equal attention.

Modesty, sympathy, generosity — these are valuable qualities in life and not necessarily in documentary cinema, where tension often acts as a narrative engine. The film tries to complicate its sororal ethos by pointing to the ways in which women are socialized to strive for perfection and avoid raising a stink. But as the film goes on to track a series of frictionless exercises in campaigning, litigation and reporting, one wishes there were more complex ideas introduced in tandem.

“Girls State” uncovers a fascinating division early on after Emily remarks that she has no trouble identifying the girls who lean liberal. “Maybe they’re just,” she pauses, searching for a diplomatic term. “Louder?” The filmmakers pair this observation with a shot in which a cluster of attendees, led by Cecilia, joyfully chant Pitbull lyrics while Emily and others watch from the side.

How is this new generation of young women from both sides of the aisle making their voices heard? What qualities do they prize in their leaders? And what qualities are they learning to prize in themselves?

These questions linger before they are eventually subsumed into the movie’s broader, blander portrait of female rapport and resilience. “Girls State” endears, but it also leaves viewers with the sense that, for a film about young women eager to take on the world’s challenges, the movie could stand to tackle a few more.

Girls State Not Rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Watch on Apple TV+ .