The story you're going to read about is true... and funny...
The phrase, “truth is stranger than fiction” can be interpreted in a lot of different ways. In the case of Rise and Shine!, the new documentary by Justin Adler, we can say that truth is funnier, more entertaining, and ultimately more interesting than fiction.
This documentary introduces us to Charlotte Brown, a drama teacher in the small town of Portland, Texas. She has been there for several decades, teaching thousands of students during her tenure, and we know right from the start that she is refreshingly politically incorrect. She has no qualms with calling out her students if they are doing something poorly or just behaving badly. When she instructs her students how to behave on the bus, she makes sure to tell the girls that if they’re not wearing make-up, “get some on. You’re scaring me.” But she could say even worse and it wouldn’t change the love and respect Ms. Brown’s students – past and present – have for her. Throughout the film, we see clips from an orthopedic surgeon, a writer from “Friends” and actor Vince Vieluf (from Grind & Rat Race) praising Ms. Brown for motivating them into becoming the success stories they are today.
We not only get to know Ms. Brown here, but we also get to know her students during this year in various debate, speech and dramatic tournaments throughout the state of Texas. The students are all just as interesting when they want to be. There are quite a few moments when we don’t see them at their best – two students in particular show up for a rehearsal with Ms. Brown and they’ve barely read their script – and we also get to see the strain that naturally comes with spending so much time together. But at the same time, we see the sort of camaraderie that they have since nobody else in their school can identity with them and their challenges with competing in these tournaments. As one student said best, “No people like drama people. They don’t find ‘em anywhere else.”
Thankfully, Ms. Brown doesn’t have to deal with these kids all by herself. She has help from the Debate Coach of their school, W.E. Schuetz, who shares the spotlight with Ms. Brown by being one of the most memorable characters in the entire film. He’s someone who comes off as absolutely hilarious, but you’d be scared to laugh with him in the room because of his clout as a teacher. Everything he says is with a stone-faced confidence, and you find yourself wondering if this is an actor playing a character, but the fact that he’s a real person has you shaking your head while laughing in disbelief over the last thing he has said.
The bulk of the film follows Ms. Brown, Mr. Schuetz and their students on a year-long series of competitions in speech, debate and theatrical performances. We are easily attached to students such as Zech, Dax, Shaun, Alyssa, and John-Michael and get to watch them compete and share their thoughts about Ms. Brown, the town of Portland and each other. The cameras obviously don’t affect the students since they are behaving just as they would if this wasn’t being recorded.
Naturally, certain characters emerge from the student body the longer we get to know them, and as the students are racking up personal and overall school awards, we sympathize with various problems they face and there’s one student in particular that you just love to hate. You’ll know who I’m talking about as soon as he says, “Damn right I’m cute. But one day I’m gonna be sexy.”
By the end of the documentary, I became fully invested in these students, the competition, and the teachers and I’ve gone through many different highs and lows with them. I was proud of them for working hard and achieving high enough scores to move onto the next rounds, and I was disappointed to see some of them falling short of expectations. And during this journey, I was laughing at the more subtle moments that would suggest this was a Christopher Guest-style mockumentary. It’s because of these funnier moments – usually when Mr. Schuetz is on camera – that may cause confusion with the audience, not knowing whether they should be laughing at this man or with him. But considering everything that we see in Rise and Shine, if I was putting this documentary together and all of a sudden, Mr. Schuetz started talking about his various hobbies, I’d keep the camera rolling too. It’d just provide more proof that truth can be more entertaining than fiction.
But at the center of Rise and Shine is Ms. Brown herself. She is someone every member of the audience can relate to, that one teacher that motivated us to become who we are. Everyone has had that teacher at some point in their lives, and I can’t help but feel a little jealous of these kids that this woman is theirs. If she wasn’t there, the film would have just been a series of funny and entertaining moments with no anchor to hold it all together. Whether it’s showing us her eclectic earring collection, her Thursday afternoon ritual, or her handling of a student that missed his appointment, Ms. Brown is the anchor for Rise and Shine just as she is for her kids, and the resulting film is entertaining, involving, funny and fascinating.
For more information about this film, check out www.smilerfilms.com.
The 411: While it seems director Justin Adler should have kept the focus of Rise and Shine on Ms. Brown and the competition, the humor in the participants helps keep this film moving along at a highly entertaining pace. As one of the better documentaries this year, this is a funny, involving and interesting piece of work that only gets better when you realize that the people we meet here are in Portland, Texas right now. Thankfully for these students, Ms. Brown is there too.
