THE BAD KIDS (Lou Pepe, Keith Fulton, U.S.). 101 minutes. Rating: NNNNN
The eponymous students at the alternative Black Rock High School in the middle of the Mojave Desert are dealing with a lot besides getting enough credits to graduate: drugs, emotional and physical abuse, homelessness, teen pregnancy and, the big common denominator, the absence of a responsible adult in their lives.
The compassionate but strict teachers at the school – particularly Vonda Viland, who often phones repeated no-shows in the morning to wake them up and personally greets everyone as they disembark from their school bus – try their best, providing consistency and sound advice.
Lou Pepe and Keith Fulton’s unobtrusive cameras are there to catch every joyous or heartbreaking moment, as Lee (a black teen dad who thinks he’s not smart enough), Joey (who’s bright but whose mom is on meth), Jennifer (whose father resents her success) and others try to gain confidence and graduate.
The school takes them up only so far, however. In one of the most gut-wrenching sequences, a young woman sobs over not wanting to leave and enter the big bad world. Viland, neglected herself as a child, is there to hold her hand.
Devastating.
May 4, 9:45 pm, Hart House May 5, 6:15 pm, TIFF 1 May 6, 12:30 pm, Hart House
