Guidance movie review

Article by Gabe Zia

Lazy Film Critic reviews: Guidance

Guidance is a comedy/drama written and directed by Pat Mills. The film follows a former child actor who is now doing podcast shows. However, when he's fired from that job, he decides to find a job more suiting his personality. Using his acting talents, he fakes his way into a job at a high school as a guidance counsellor, and takes advantage of some of the power this job gives him. Along with writing and directing the movie, Pat Mills also stars in the film as David.

Pat Mills as David

Most of the actors in this movie do a pretty good job for each of their respective roles, despite the fact that most of the roles are pretty short-lived. This is a character driven film, but the only character driving the movie most of the time is David. Usually that would be a bad thing, but here, it's what makes Guidance work. David seems around thirty, but acts like a teenager throughout the film, meanwhile every other character seems jaded and annoyed with life. And Pat Mills brings so much energy and emotion at some points to this character. He was quick witted, his comedic timing was spot on, and he brought humor to some more basic stuff, such as riding a bike. Riding a bike seems like such a mundane thing, but Mills brings a sense of sarcasm to everything he's doing in the film, which keeps everything entertaining.

The writing here also brings a large amount of focus onto David having way more energy and personality than all the other adult characters. Like I said, David doens't have any of the credentials to work at a school, and he doesn't seem to have had much of an education. However, despite that, David is a really quotable and almost philosophical character at times. Forgetting the fact that he drinks and does drugs with the students he's counselling, he helps some of them way better than any of the other teachers are. This brings up some interesting ideas on who is really qualified to help youth, and who just went to school to learn how to do it. However, this film isn't entirely one sided, and also does a good job on talking about the other part of this, that giving alcohol and drugs to students isn't the best idea out there, helpful or not.

Much like last years Skeleton Twins, Guidance is a comedy drama where the line between what's comedic and what's dramatic is blurred beyond recognition, seamlessly blending the two. Most of the time, with Guidance, a scene will be both hilarious and emotional at the same time. However, where The Skeleton Twins took a seriously depressing turn at the end, Guidance seems to remain a comedy throughout. It's only once the films over that the comedic flare wares off, and you start to think about some of the scenes. It's a film that keeps you thinking long after it's over.

Final Rating

Guidance is an emotional and hilarious dramedy, with a fantastic performance by Pat Mills. It seamlessly blends both comedy and drama, and has some unexpected philosophical statements to make on society, and modern education. I'd say, if you want to see a good, honest comedy, look no further than Guidance.

Guidance: 4/5