Maggie Gyllenhaal Crosses the Line as The Kindergarten Teacher

1 Jake Gyllenhaal, hosting a special screening of his sister’s new film, The Kindergarten Teacher, at Metrograph, was all praise for Maggie Gyllenhaal. “I’ve been watching her act all my life,” he smiled broadly at a crowd that included Christopher Lloyd, Israel Horowitz, Diane Sawyer, and many others including his Wildlife director Paul Dano and co-writer Zoe Kazan. The titular kindergarten teacher joins a roster of edgy women brought to life by Gyllenhaal’s ample talents. Think Secretary where her character enjoys a good spanking. In this movie, she’s a thwarted poet who recognizes the poetic gifts of one of her students, a five-year old Jimmy Roy played by one of the producer’s children’s classmate Parker Sevak. Wishing to nurture his verse, Gyllenhaal’s Lisa goes creepy, unacceptable. Every parent will get the willies watching what she does, all with a “good heart.”

At a post screening Q&A, Ashley Banfield began by asking which is more fun to play, a prostitute (as in HBO’s The Deuce) or a kindergarten teacher. A prostitute, said Gyllenhaal gamely, and yet she spoke eloquently about women like Lisa whose imaginations are curbed by few opportunities and her own artistic limitations. Lisa illustrates the consequences of what happens when you starve a vibrant woman’s mind: “Women twist themselves into a culture that doesn’t care who we are. We are learning right now in our culture how little women’s experiences are heard or valued. People are hungry for something truthful.” As to her own ambitions, Maggie Gyllenhaal is adapting a novel by Elena Ferrante to direct.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura