General Education Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

General Education Blu-ray Movie Review

"Student fails to live up to potential."

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 26, 2012

Most who have graduated from high school or college have had the dream where they’re back in school, unprepared for a test that has just been announced. Others have a variation on this dream where for some reason they’ve found out they haven’t graduated for some reason. That second issue isn’t a dream for General Education’s hero, Levi (Chris Sheffield), but a waking nightmare. As the film starts, Levi, a promising young tennis player, has been offered a full ride scholarship at a tony private college where his family has gone for generations. That same day, Levi’s worst fears come to pass when he finds out that his chief high school nemesis, science teacher Ms. Bradford (Elaine Hendrix), has refused to pass him, putting his high school graduation in peril. Levi enlists his theatrically ambitious sister Emily (McKaley Miller) to impersonate their mother on a phone call from the school’s Principal Lynch (Susan McCarthy), so that Levi can at least pretend to graduate by walking across the stage and picking up his diploma. However, to really receive his degree and be eligible for the lucrative college scholarship, Levi must attend a ten day summer school make up session, a gambit he hides from his father Rich (Larry Miller), who is living vicariously through his athletic son, and his mother Gale (Janeane Garofolo), who is drowning her incipient empty nest syndrome under copious amounts of alcohol. General Education starts out strongly, with some fine observational humor and some deft writing and editing, but it loses steam in its second act, choosing the easy way out instead of exploring some of the issues it has already raised. Levi is a kid who doesn’t even want to be a tennis pro, his parents are obviously well meaning but incredibly dysfunctional, and Levi’s buddies are an oddball assortment that seem to be there simply to provide the film with a little color, but none of these elements is really developed as well as they might have been, and General Education barely manages a passing grade as a result.

If you were to take the first half hour or so of General Education and take that as the baseline against which this film should be measured, chances are most would find a lot to really like about this enterprise. The main characters are all introduced quickly and often quite winningly. Levi is obviously a fierce competitor in tennis, but he’s also equally unenthusiastic about a life as a tennis pro, something his older brother Brian (Bobby Campo) has been forced into due to the overweening influence of the Collins paterfamilias. The parents are odd ducks, with Janeane Garofalo’s Gale seemingly ported in from a decidedly darker, more serious film, which is not to say she isn’t hilarious. And Levi’s little sister is just a kick in her desire to “method act” her way through an upcoming mime performance. The film is fleet footed and very well written, even if it’s a bit hackneyed in its execution.

But then something odd happens once Levi decides to secretly get through his brief summer school experience without telling his parents. The film devolves pretty steadily into a standard teen love escapade when Levi meets comely coed Katie (Maiara Walsh) while at the same time engaging in a serious feud with fellow classmate and tennis competitor Chad (Tom Maden). All of this of course puts Levi on a precarious course which may well prevent him from successfully completing summer school, thereby jeopardizing any chance he has of getting into college.

Had General Education had the courage of its convictions and dared to delve into some of the darker aspects of this story (as epitomized by Garofalo’s character, who is close to being borderline neurotic), it may have not been funnier per se but it would have perhaps found more biting humor than it eventually settles for. The film wants to be slightly edgy, and in fact it manages that feat in its opening act, but it’s as if co-scenarists Tom Morris (who also directed), Jaz Kalkat and Elliot Feld either ran out of comedic steam or just decided they needed to make their outing more marketable and went for tried and true tropes that have proven successful in any number of previous teen comedies.

Despite the lackluster results of the bulk of the film, there are some very winning performances here. Sheffield does very well as a competent young man who through a bit of negligence sees his future disappearing alarmingly fast. Walsh is also very appealing as the love interest, but she’s saddled with one of the most patently ridiculous “reveals” in recent film history, one that is simply too pat and too coincidental to do anything other than frustrate viewers who are tired of suspending disbelief to the point that their heads hurt. Miller and Garofalo are also quite good as the parents, although the tonal differences between the two performances are quite striking, to say the least. Some of the best work here comes from a colorful supporting cast, including a very enjoyable turn by Skylan Brooks as Levi’s self- proclaimed sidekick, and Harvey Guillen as one of Levi’s wacky buddies.

General Education is like one of the wisenheimer kids who answers all the questions the teacher poses early in the school year, and who then attempts to coast for the duration, hoping that a good first impression will carry them through without much further effort. As most who try this gambit eventually find out, it’s good for a modest “C” at best.

General Education Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

General Education is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. This is a generally fine looking high definition presentation, though it never really has the chance to pop due to its kind of blah settings and pedestrian filming style. The brightly lit outdoor sequences (as in the tennis matches) fare best here, with some very nicely saturated and robust color, excellent contrast and really pleasing fine object detail in the close-ups. Interior shots can be pretty murky and muddy looking, at least by comparison, and a couple of extremely dimly lit shots are riddled with negligible shadow detail (see the screencap of Levi and Katie at the swimming pool for a good example). Other than those occasional anomalies, there are no real major problems here to report. This may not be an overwhelmingly gorgeous offering, but, like the film itself, it kind of ambles along genially enough and gets the job done.

General Education Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While General Education doesn't offer a lot of opportunity for fulsome surround activity, the film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track does a good job overall, with excellent fidelity and some rather surprising dynamic range for this type of film. There are a couple of funny explosions (dealing with fireworks) that dot the film and give an occasional burst of LFE. Dialogue is very cleanly and clearly presented and some of the outdoor moments do have a nice feeling of spaciousness with some well handled ambient environmental effects.

General Education Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director, Producers and Sound Editor features Jaz Kalkat, Kevin Liang, Elliot Feld, Tom Morris and Tim Hoogenakker. This is a rather surprisingly low key affair, especially considering how many participants it has, but there's a lot of good production information given along the way here. Some of the most interesting information (at least for this film geek) is Hoogenakker's sound mixing anecdotes.


• Outtakes (HD; 5:39)


• The Making Of General Education (HD; 10:56) is another standard EPK-fest with lots of behind the scenes footage intercut with some interviews.


• Trailer (HD; 1:44)

General Education Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I had really high hopes for General Education through its opening scenes. It was smart, funny and even a little dark, a near perfect combination for a film dealing with teenage angst in suburbia. But by the time we got into the bulk of the film's major plot exposition, there was a serious letdown. General Education still had some great moments, especially with its colorful supporting cast, and Sheffield makes for a very appealing leading man, but the film just felt seriously dumbed down by the time its second act kicked in. This would still make an agreeable enough rental for those wanting a few laughs without investing in anything demanding. The problem here is General Education gives a first impression that it might actually have some loftier ambitions about this oft-told story. Those ambitions were evidently done in by an overwhelming desire to conform.