I have been a teacher for some fifteen years now. I teach English here in the Netherlands and have worked at a variety of schools, ranging from schools in poor neighbourhoods with lower level education to a broad school community, with predominantly white middle to upper class kids. I've taught at the latter for the better part of my career so far.

Why all this background information? Well, two reasons. Firstly in order for me to bring across how I feel about this film, I need to tell something about my job and how I see it. Secondly to make clear that this film isn't about America, or the worrisome state of the American education system. I'll get to what…

I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised Tony Kaye’s return to filmmaking should be this melodramatic, heavy-handed and one-dimensional given his equally simplistic approach to racism in American History X. It is an approach that has served him well, critically at least, but personally I’m not a fan. Detachment is a film that attempts to bludgeon the audience into submission as we follow a substitute teacher numbed by life and the failings of the American education system. Filmmakers have mined this area for decades now but few have been so unrelenting in their pessimism and cynicism of both the education system and the state of the world.

It’s a film that numbs the audience (which is no doubt the point…

"A child's intelligent heart can fathom the depth of many dark places, but can it fathom the delicate moment of its own detachment?" Henry Barthes

Man this film was a tough watch! Adrien Brody is excellent here as a substitute teacher who's latest assignment finds him at a school where the kids are the worst of the worst and the teachers who have tried their best are at their wits end. Tony Kaye does an excellent job directing here because you practically feel the emotional weight the teachers and students carry. The story is a testament to how programs like no child left behind are a joke because millions of kids are left behind by parents who just don't want…

American History X is one of my favorite, most uncomfortable viewing pleasures and when I found out it's director Tony Kaye followed it up (for his first film in over a decade) with Detachment, I was excited. I had very high hopes and Kaye even exceeded my expectations. In fact, if you ask me, it's better than American History X and shows how much he's improved as a director. Like American History X, this film is uncompromising, uncomfortable, unflinching, and just plain compelling to watch.

Not many directors are able to express what's on their minds in terms of important and heavy subject matter without coming off as too preachy or obvious (take Bobcat Goldwaithe as an example of someone…

Tony Kaye makes important films. American History X was one such film. And after almost 13 years he has given us Detachment. These are films which reflect the society that we live in and it is evident that he wants it to change. He wants it to change it through his characters.

Adrian Broody's character reminded me of Robert de Niro's in Taxi Driver. The angst, distraught, self-loathing, the drive to do good and change the world, if not at least one person, is so painfully true and similar.

Especially loved those portions when Broody does his monologue. It was like having a rendezvous with the viewer one on one but it also can be regarded as conveying to no…

Tony Kaye has absolutely no problem saying what he thinks through film. He takes a strong stance on controversial issues, and ends up with really important films such as Detachment. The visual language of this film is really immature and distracting, but the powerful performances and the subject matter overcome this flaw. Detachment is an extremely powerful film, resonating with importance and truth in every word spoken, in every character revealed, and in every emotion evoked.

As a commentary on America's current education crisis, this film is spot on correct. Young people's lives are being destroyed by bad parenting and schooling every day. Kids are dying by their own hands because they aren't getting the support and mental health services…

This movie was too cynical for me to really enjoy it, or the characters that pervaded it. While Adrien Brody gives a solid, brooding performance, he didn't feel like a full character. He, along with most everyone else, felt, as the title would suggest, too detached from everyday life. The people here are depicted in a dichotomy of both ultra-emotinal beings and simultaneously hollow, vacant shells, incapable of really connecting with anyone. This duality made the film overall seem too unbalanced to leave a major impact or try and deliver the message that it works so hard to achieve. The sub-characters played into the same ideal, and it didn't really resonate in a way that felt fresh. I will say,…

Tony Kaye makes important films. American History X was one such film. And after almost 13 years he has given us Detachment. These are films which reflect the society that we live in and it is evident that he wants it to change. He wants it to change it through his characters.

Adrian Broody's character reminded me of Robert de Niro's in Taxi Driver. The angst, distraught, self-loathing, the drive to do good and change the world, if not at least one person, is so painfully true and similar.

Especially loved those portions when Broody does his monologue. It was like having a rendezvous with the viewer one on one but it also can be regarded as conveying to no…