An inner-city high school teacher discovers she is pregnant at the same time as one of her most promising students and the two develop an unlikely friendship while struggling to navigate their unexpected pregnancies.
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Deeper than the descriptions
What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.
The first must-see film of the year.
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
This is a feel good story about two pregnant women. Samantha (Cobie Smulders) is a white teacher at a predominantly African-American high school in Chicago. She becomes pregnant and gets married. She discovers that Jasmine (Gail Bean) who sports a 3.8 GPA is also pregnant. Samantha and Jasmine become friends as Samantha attempts to help her get into college in spite of her pregnancy. For some reason Samantha was unaware that her underprivileged students don't have the same values as herself. About an hour into the film, the student becomes the teacher, giving Samantha an epiphany.While the film discusses working mothers vs stay at home moms, I didn't see it as a real strong criticism for either one. There film was designed to show the contrasting lives of the two women.Guide: F-bomb. Brief sex? No nudity. Happy ending.
I'm surprised at the 5.5 rating for this film, as I found it to be filled with razor sharp dialogue that rang true to life, laced with humor but also raised some serious social issues, mainly the conflict families face with a newborn when they don't have long term maternity leave available.The most talented actress Cobie Smulders is excellent here as Samantha, a high school science teacher, in Chicago, who's working for a school scheduled to close at the end of the semester. She's been in a long term relationship with John (Anders Holm), when she unexpectedly discovers she's pregnant. They decide to quickly marry at the local courthouse, and you can see they have indeed a loving relationship.At the same time, one of Samantha's senior students, Jasmine, superbly portrayed by Gail Bean (an actress to watch in the future), finds out she's pregnant as well. This will subsequently bring Samantha and Jasmine closer together, and Samantha will try to help her student apply for college and hopefully build a more solid future.Initially, I thought things in the movie were perhaps too sugary sweet, but as it progressed there were conflicts that arose, and it all came down to a most poignant ending, in my opinion.All in all, I found this to be an exceptional indie, filled with most solid performances, good direction from Kris Swanberg, who also wrote the true-to-life script with Megan Mercier. It also raised some important social issues as well, without being too preachy.
This film has a lot of realism and is really well acted. Black girl and black community (so loud, so big) compared with white ones (so small, so unsteady) were the most interesting things to me, living so far from Illinois. But besides that I appreciated many details and even though I can't say that I enjoyed the film, Authors' talent is out of discussion.The story, however, was not catching and sometimes the two girls reminded me of two blind lemmings working their way through life, love and maternity. Simple things made complicated are not entertaining. And one thing lacks more than any other: fun. Real people make jokes, real people laugh: Sam and Jasmine? At best they smile...
As a twice married, still fairly young man with three children whom were made very much on purpose - this film annoyed me by its naive: "Duh, how did I get pregnant?" tone. "Unexpected" pregnancies are probably the only subject I will sign up to a website for just for the purpose of commenting. Please publish my review of the main theme of the film, it is so important that the simple message I will put across is understood by younger people as it seems sex education is failing if this film is anything to go by. This film is misleading about "how" people get pregnant.There is a line at 17:58 that made my face contort like I'd just eaten a lemon and I began to fizzle and pop. On hearing about a student's pregnancy a teacher says: "I just don't understand how these girls get themselves into these situations? It's like they want to get pregnant."She doesn't understand? Wow. The main character didn't seem to understand either and seems genuinely surprised that she is pregnant.In her mid-30's, she's only been having periods for at least the last twenty years of her life and should by now have some clue as to what causes pregnancies. The answer is "boys/men". There is no such thing as an "accident". Too much emphasis is placed on condoms preventing pregnancy. A condom's main function is to guard against disease passed on through blood which you should absolutely use if you are unsure about a partner's sexual past or have only just met. The "didn't have a condom" excuse is not an excuse. If you are in a long term relationship and it is quite obvious they don't have any infections, even if a condom is not available, there is still no reason at all for a girl to become pregnant. Pre-ejaculate does not contain sperm - it is nearly the same as the fluid secreted by a females Skene's glands when she is aroused. To get pregnant, a woman has only about a 24-hour window of opportunity in the month! You count 14 days from the FIRST DAY of a girl's LAST period. That is the time an egg is there waiting to be fertilized. That seems incredible that so many "accidents" occur. It isn't. Young people are seeing each other very often and quite quickly! That means a near-constant supply of semen against the cervix (opening to the womb). As sperm can live a few days, just so easy!. What needs to be hammered into people's minds (and the main character in this film apparently), is to NOT allow the male partner to ejaculate inside the vagina. If you are going to have sex, boys please know you must finish "outside" and girls, for goodness sake don't allow him to ejaculate inside. It is YOUR body and your right to demand he doesn't. The hundreds of times I had sex with my first wife and second wife I always used this simple method and NEVER ONCE did we have any scares. The times I made my gorgeous three kids was with permission and mutual consent and we became pregnant and it was a joy! Follow this simple rule and you can enjoy a full sex life but remain in education/work, without needing to go to the school toilet and sit on it and act "surprised" and say the F-word. ;-)