The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg
School Life is a loving portrait, primarily, of the inspirational educator couple, who command the respect of their students and always seem to know what a particular child needs to hear.
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Ireland, Spain · 2019
Rated PG-13 · 1h 39m
Director David Rane
Starring
Genre Documentary
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
An observational documentary that follows John and Amanda, two inspirational teachers at an Irish boarding school who embrace both modernity and tradition, teaching Latin, English, and guitar. But as retirement looms, the two reflect on what comes next, and what will keep them young if they leave?
The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg
School Life is a loving portrait, primarily, of the inspirational educator couple, who command the respect of their students and always seem to know what a particular child needs to hear.
By highlighting sweet, indicative, or hilarious moments rather than tracing the teachers’ relationships with any particular students, the film is more attuned to the rhythms of Headfort than it is the people in it.
Slant Magazine by Diego Semerene
School Life is unfortunately committed to keeping its subjects, especially Headfort’s students, at arm’s length.
Screen International by Fionnuala Halligan
Childhood is a mystery we endlessly come back to and a place the Leydens have never fully left; Ní Chianáin gives the viewer an intimate view of it in this unusual little story.
It certainly succeeds in being a joyous, humane look at the role that school, education, and, most importantly, teachers have in the lives of such malleable minds.
There’s considerable poignancy in the contrast between this eccentric pair’s mutual sense that their lives are winding down and the vast, still-unshaped futures of their young charges, but Ní Chianáin’s film largely resists sentimentality of the “Greatest Love of All” variety.
In Loco Parentis is a warm work of cinéma vérité.
Maybe it won’t exist in Ireland much longer either, so it’s a good thing that School Life manages to capture its weird, wonderful world.
The Hollywood Reporter by Neil Young
A conventionally mounted tribute to a genial, decidedly British form of eccentricity.
School Life is a bit woolly in its pacing, but the picture’s easygoing structure is part of its charm—it mimics, perhaps, the passage of time at Headfort itself.
The motion picture screen beckons you to adventure that thrills the emotions with shock and terror!
The world has never understood why the Japanese prefer death to dishonor. This winner of Prix Special du Jury at Cannes 1963 provides the answer!
Two cousins compete viciously for the favor of their Queen.
An angel falls. A warrior rises.
A failed stand-up comedian is driven insane, turning to a life of crime in chaos in Gotham City.
A poor family lies and schemes their way into the employ of a wealthy household — successfully, but with great consequences.
A cruise for the ultra-wealthy goes awry when the ship sinks, leaving the survivors stranded on a desert island.
Let the festivities begin.
Two British soldiers race to deliver a message that will stop over 1,000 men from walking into a German ambush.
A midlife crisis represented by a deerskin jacket.
A scientist and a park scout venture deep into the woods looking for the cure to a devastating virus.