Recently my Sunday newspaper reviewed Night School, a comedy with a touch of romance set in Atlanta. It’s plot centres on a high school dropout who for linked reasons of career and the heart returns as an adult to study for his General Education Development (GED) Certificate.
In spite of its highly-regarded cast and an established director, the film isn’t likely to win an Oscar or become a cult classic. The movie website Rotten Tomatoes summarised it as a ‘disappointingly scattershot comedy’ while the New York Times found it a ragged comedy’ and the London Times attacked its ‘long out-dated streak of sexism’.
Much as I love films, I’ve not seen it and have no plans to. But I certainly think it is an interesting phenomenon and would love to know how audiences respond to its setting, as well as to its fundamental belief that a motley group of mid-life American oddballs will see adult education as the solution to their problems.
With few exceptions, it’s unusual for adult education to feature as a central plot device in a mainstream movie, let alone one that is currently playing at my local Odeon and Vue theatres. As Emily Yoshida wrote in her review, this makes the film stand out all the more, by portraying
A group of working class Americans optimistic enough to believe that a high school diploma might be the key to turning their lives around, no matter how far into them they are.
Whether this good-hearted intention is enough to rescue the film from its frailties is a matter of opinion. I’ll watch it if and when it turns up on tv, terrestrial or streamed, but until then even the hook of a (black ) Hollywood take on adult education won’t part me from my money.
More interesting for me is the way in which the filmmakers make assumptions about audience understandings of adult education; and the possible impact of the film on audiences’ attitudes towards adult education. Meanwhile, you can watch the trailer here.
thelearningprofessor 