Il Supplente (The Substitute)

May 24, 2008

Il Supplente (The Substitute) (2007) *

Directed by Andrea Jublin

Short Film (15 min.)

Note: This is from a DVD I rented at Blockbuster containing all of the live action and animated short film Academy Award nominees from 2007. You can rent the DVD on Netflix or at your local Blockbuster. I found it among the S films on the New Releases wall.

Ummmm… okay. Why does this film exist and why is it available in the United States on DVD? I guess the real question is WHY WAS THIS NOMINATED FOR AN OSCAR??? If I were watching it on YouTube, I’d still give it one star even keeping in mind the quality of most things on a website like that. The premise of the film is simple—a man pretends to be a substitute teacher in a high school, acts like a jackass, runs across the street to his office, acts like a jackass and words on a screen tell us that the film is dedicated to people who have no conduct. I’m guessing there was a problem with the translation of who this film is dedicated to because that makes no sense. That being said, even if I were a person with “no conduct,” I wouldn’t want this movie to be dedicated to me. This movie plays like something that might be handed in as a final project in a middle school filmmaking course. Obviously, the film attempts to be over the top, but it’s not consistent at all. It didn’t bother me that not one single spoken word or action is remotely believable. What did bother me was that the film isn’t enjoyable. The director and writer Andrea Jublin also plays the substitute teacher, and all I’ve got to say to this guy is that I hope you kept your day job after getting nominated for an Oscar, because, in my opinion which I came to after watching your film, you have absolutely no talent or future as a director, writer or actor. Seriously, the next time one of my classes misbehaves (I’m a teacher by the way), I am going to show this movie to them as punishment.