Film Fodder

“The Kindergarten Teacher” is a Netflix original movie that debuted in 2018. It stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as Lisa Spinelli, a kindergarten teacher in New York, whose true passion is writing amateur poetry. She becomes convinced that one of her students, Jimmy Roy, is a poet prodigy akin to Mozart. She becomes obsessed with Jimmy, writing all of his poetry down, taking him to poetry readings, and trying to nurture his creative mind. The problem with this, is that Jimmy’s parents don’t approve, his father wants him to focus on being a “normal kid” and not pursue an artistic path in life. Lisa’s obsession with Jimmy begins to affect her life at home and her relationship with her husband and children. She also begins to pass Jimmy’s poems off as her own in her poetry class, earning the attention of her teacher and classmates.