Press review

DEADLINE – 14.12.23  Pete Hammond:

https://deadline.com/2023/12/the-teachers-lounge-review-leonie-benesch-german-oscar-entry-1235668864/

A critical hit beginning at Berlin, and then winning much talk at Telluride, Toronto and AFI festivals, this fascinating movie is a Blackboard Jungle of a different stripe, but still one that puts a critical finger on our educational institutions by way of the human scope. That it is shot (by cinematographer Judith Kaufmann) in a claustrophobic 4:3 aspect ratio only adds to the tension created by co-writer (with Johannes Duncker) and director Ilker Çatak (a past student Academy Award winner), the latter pair incorporating some of their own experiences as schoolmates, but on a much more dangerous and explosive canvas here.

 

THE DAILY BEASTThe Teachers’ Lounge’ Review: School Has Never Been This Stressful

The drama is Germany’s entry for Best International Feature at this year’s Oscars—and makes for one nerve-wracking, intense watch.

Nick Schager Published Dec. 24, 2023 9:15PM EST 

Benesch’s fraught eyes and alternately relaxed and cagey comportment capture Nowak’s mixture of confidence and alarm as events begin spiraling out of control. The Teachers’ Lounge engagingly mires itself in its pressure-cooker environment, with Judith Kaufmann’s verité-esque handheld cinematography and Miller’s fretful orchestral themes amplifying its urgency.

 

VARIETY – 3/23

https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/the-teachers-lounge-review-1235520794/

As Carla has the bright edges of her idealism chipped away, the color gradually fades from Judith Kaufmann’s crisp, freshly washed handheld cinematography. In this cold palette, the corridors and bathrooms become comfortless, hard-edged, overlit places, without dark corners in which the truth can hide.