Directed by:
Sara ColangeloScreenplay:
Sara ColangeloCinematography:
Pepe Avila del PinoComposer:
Asher GoldschmidtCast:
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Parker Sevak, Gael García Bernal, Michael Chernus, Rosa Salazar, Anna Baryshnikov, Ajay Naidu, Daisy Tahan, Samrat Chakrabarti (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Stuck in Staten Island, married to a kind but oblivious husband, and living with kids that mostly ignore her, 40-year-old Lisa Spinelli (Maggie Gyllenhaal) plods through her days teaching kindergarten with growing numbness. Her one source of joy is an evening poetry class across the bay in Lower Manhattan. But one day everything changes - Lisa discovers that a five-year-old boy in her class may be the poet she can only dream of being. She becomes fascinated. Could this child be a prodigy? A Mozart? Fascination turns to obsession as Lisa pushes boundaries to protect the boy from a banal life she knows too well. In a harrowing climax, Lisa risks her career, her family, and her freedom to nurture his genius and possibly tap into her own. (Sundance Film Festival)
(more)Cast
Maggie Gyllenhaal
USA
Best movies:
The Dark Knight (2008)
Donnie Darko (2001)
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
Parker Sevak
Best movies:
The Kindergarten Teacher (2018)
Gael García Bernal
Mexico
Best movies:
Coco (2017)
Amores Perros (2000)
Babel (2006)
Michael Chernus
USA
Best movies:
Captain Phillips (2013)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
The Messenger (2009)
Rosa Salazar
USA
Best movies:
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021)
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Bird Box (2018)
Anna Baryshnikov
USA
Best movies:
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
Wiener-Dog (2016)
Ajay Naidu
USA
Best movies:
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
K-Pax (2001)
The Wrestler (2008)
Daisy Tahan
Best movies:
The Nice Guys (2016)
Synecdoche, New York (2008)
Love and Other Impossible Pursuits (2009)
Samrat Chakrabarti
UK
Best movies:
New York (2009)
She Hate Me (2004)
Nancy (2018)
Aamira Martinez
USA
Best movies:
When They See Us (2019) (series)
Tigertail (2020)
The Kindergarten Teacher (2018)
Nikhil Melnechuk
Best movies:
The Kindergarten Teacher (2018)
Haley Murphy
Best movies:
Adam (2019)
The Half of It (2020)
My Best Day (2012)
Allen McCullough
Best movies:
Vinyl (2016) (series)
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
Shirley (2020)
Kea Trevett
Best movies:
The Kindergarten Teacher (2018)
Clark Carmichael
Best movies:
The Irishman (2019)
Hamlet (2000) (TV movie)
Ocean's 8 (2018)
Ato Blankson-Wood
USA
Best movies:
When They See Us (2019) (series)
BlacKkKlansman (2018)
It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)