Review Of “The Learning Curve” From The Monadnock International Film Festival

This past Saturday, The Learning Curve screened at the Monadnock International Film Festival in Keene, NH. MatthewGrayGublerFans.org was in attendance, and we have this fabulous review from member Jasmine aka Lintus Flower

The Learning Curve, the short film based on the book “Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris is a comedy/drama based on
Mr. Sedaris’ life when he obtains a position to teach a writing class.

It portrays the challenges that Mr. Sedaris faced when teaching students about writing without any prior experience or preparation for the class itself. Phree Swearingen (producer) and Phil McCarty (director) did an excellent job at keeping the film as close to the chapter of the book as possible and added a unique twist to certain parts of the book that wasn’t so easily portrayed visually.

Their choice to play Mr. Sedaris was the unique and talented Matthew Gray Gubler, who I could see as the only true actor to portray Sedaris’ strange personality and dry humor. The likeness of Sedaris and Gubler made the film easy to comprehend and Matthew easily fell into the character of Sedaris, which made the film enjoyable from beginning to end. Fans could almost say that if their ages weren’t so different that they made indeed be seperated at birth. Gubler’s vocabulary and facial expressions kept the audience entertained and I found myself laughing throughout the whole short.

A few artistic touches were added to the short to make the film easier when Sedaris went into a monologue. For example, when Sedaris was talking to his student and felt that he was not expressing himself the appropriate way, the filmmakers used an interesting concept to express what he felt was wrong about his conversation to said student.

Another example was when he was arguing with a student, instead of the usual argument, filmmakers offered us a different take on their “war of words”.

The final artistic touch was the part watching Gubler, playing Sedaris, writing on the chalkboard as students threw wadded paper balls at him, and ran around the classroom. To me, this portrayed how the students did not take any of Sedaris’ teaching lessons seriously

The story in itself was very humoristic look on Sedaris’ beginning teaching methods, such as asking for food recipes for his
slow cooker and telling the students it helped them form writing outlines; playing his favourite soap operas and asking the students to write papers on what would happen next;

Telling students that writing became fiction if you wrote it down and not said it out loud (in which a student wrote that it was the dumbest thing he ever heard).

Also, one of my favorite scenes was when Gubler opened his briefcase in his first class and let leaf shaped papers fly onto his desk, which he wanted his students to use as nametags. The students asked him if they were hand made, and though he constantly said they were store bought, we see images of Gubler sitting at home crafting these said leaves individually.

All in all, The Learning Curve is funny and entertaining throughout the complete 16 minute short. I recommend anyone with a sense of humor to go out and see it at a film festival near you, especially since this short will not be put up for sale on DVD. If you are a Matthew Gray Gubler fan, I definately encourage you to go see it since it seems to portray the true essence of who Matthew really is as a person, a treat for all Gubler fans.

Thanks to Jasmine for the great review. Be sure to check out the Official Movie Site, and follow Director/Writer Phil McCarty, Producer Phree Swearingen, and The Learning Curve on twitter.