FILM: The History Boys

With a star-studded cast, this film made Dominic Cooper and James Corden famous.
Written by Alan Bennett, starring Richard Griffiths and Frances de la Tour, this film was always going to be good.
It's about the struggle of a group of school boys doing their best to get into Oxbridge.
It tackles issues like homosexuality, paedophilia, education (how one should be educated), elitism in schools, and the life of a teenage schoolboy.
It tackles quite a lot in one go.
The lead roles are brilliantly acted, though the film doesn't have much depth to the characters - you could either say this makes the characters easier to act, or you could say the acting was brilliant because there wasn't much character for the actors to use.
The film seems to laugh its way through really troubling topics - like the relationships between the boys and their teachers.
The question is, were the decisions made the correct ones to make?
When the headmaster discovers the paedophilic actions of Richard Griffiths' character, he quietly fires him and does all he can not to make a scene for the sake of his school's reputation. Shouldn't he have got the police involved? Considering it is set in the 1980s, when this sort of thing happened frequently, should we just take it on the chin or should we condemn the headmaster along with the teacher nonetheless?

FILM: Captain Fantastic

If you like Viggo Mortensen, watch this film. If you're interested in alternative ways of bringing up children, watch this film. If you're interested in education, watch this film. If these three things don't appeal to you...watch this film - because they will afterwards.
Ben Cash (Viggo) and his wife decided on a radical way to bring up their children. They bought a camper van and set up a self-contained home in a forest in America. The children are being brought up in the woods, away from normal society, learning to survive by the land. They are educated by their father who has them reading literature, philosophy, and history from a young age, and quizzes them on their knowledge and opinions; it is very important to him that they have their own opinions.
That is, until their mother kills herself.
They have to leave home and drive a long way across America, integrating with modern society, to go to their mother's funeral.
It has hilarious consequences, interesting consequences, and some quite gruelling consequences.
The children do not fit in with modern society; they think and behave differently to other children, and were educated differently. As a result, there are some hilarious encounters with the outside world. It also brings up some interesting points about child-rearing, and education. At first, we're enchanted with the radical path Ben and his wife chose, but it soon becomes clear that it's not as perfect as it seems.