I saw Freedom Writers this weekend. Ironically enough there were two sassy Latina teenagers sitting in the back row hooting and hollering through all the scenes with gang violence. Not to mention the middle-aged couple who explained each plot "twist" right before it happened, they were so smart. Not to mention the three or four women who I took to be actual teachers. But none of them laughed at the parts where Dr. McDreamy got pissed about having to wait for Ms. Swank to come home from her idyllic educating career. I found those scenes to be quite hilarious. I just can't picture Patrick Dempsey ever feeling all that threatened by someone else's gratifying career. Yeah, the one where Hillary Swank has to go get a third job so she can pay for her students' copies of The Diary of Anne Frank. And I felt really bad for Vera Drake to have to come down so low to play such a one-note, nasty department head (although she did do a very good job, and I guess Judi Dench was too busy). (Imelda Staunton was robbed last year.)

I thought it was INCREDIBLE that Pat Carroll played Miep Giess, the woman who helped Anne Frank and family hide. Does anyone remember her as a stepsister from the TV Cinderella version with Lesley Ann Warren? I think it was on CBS, and it had quite an impact on me as a young girl... "In my own little corner, in my own little room, I can be whatever I want to be..."

I know the picture I've selected isn't Pat Carroll but Celeste Holm (with LA Warren). The Pat Carroll-as-wicked-stepsister was pixel-heavy.

Too bad they couldn't get Kaye Ballard to play Mother Teresa.

I love seeing the teacher movies, although my favorite by far has been Half Nelson with Ryan Gosling. I hear The Tao of Steve is also worth watching.

The Swank movie wasn't so bad. I didn't care for the Scott Glenn redemptive-father scene, though. I hate those kinds of scenes, mostly because I didn't experience one with my own father. I haven't seen one yet that didn't strike me as utterly and maliciously false. Maybe that explains why I gravitate toward Mean Dad movies, too, like The Great Santini and This Boy's Life.

Speaking of which, Leo DiCaprio was truly enjoyable in Blood Diamond. Connelly, not so much, but I really liked the settings and depiction of Africa a lot. Especially with reading Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and studying Heart of Darkness with the high schoolers last year (or the year before).

God, good literature is the frickin' coolest. Learning it again as a teacher is such an incredibly amazing situation to find myself in... I feel quite lucky.