(2009) Screenwriter Bobcat Goldthwait has directed a phony film about phoniness. High-school English teacher and writer of four unpublished manuscripts of novels (composing his fifth and prepared to quit if this effort fails), Lance Clayton (Robin Williams) dreams of becoming a rich and famous author.

Fearful of being left alone (though he likes zombie movies), he's also the divorced, pathetic parent of an insolent, incorrigible son, Kyle (Daryl Sabara), a hostile and horny 15-year-old who has but one friend, Andrew, a scrawny vegetarian with an alcoholic mother. No one else at school likes Kyle, and the loathing is mutual; following another disruptive incident, the principal tells Lance that Kyle, already on academic probation, belongs in a special-needs school.

Lance's secret girlfriend (at least 15 years younger) Claire Reed (Alexie Gilmore) teaches art in the same school; they furtively sneak kisses and embraces during school, wary of being seen together on a public date. She also likes Mike Lane (Henry Simmons), an African-American member of the faculty and divorced father of a two-year-old son, giving Lance cause for jealousy in addition to Mike's having just been published in The New Yorker.

After Kyle accidentally strangles himself while masturbating, Lance makes his son's death appear to have been intentional and writes a moving suicide note. Exploiting the powerful, transforming effect of Kyle's death on the students and faculty - the suicide note gets published in the school newspaper, students begin wearing buttons and t-shirts featuring Kyle's face, Lance's poetry class suddenly becomes popular - Lance shares Kyle's journal with the school psychologist, who has copies printed for everyone to read and admire the "smart and sad" words of a talented but misunderstood young mind.

Invited to appear on a popular TV program with the journal, Lance soon has offers from publishers to mass produce Kyle's musings in book form, titled You Don't Know Me, and one of Lance's manuscripts. Andrew, who feels affection for Kyle's father, nevertheless questions Kyle's having actually been so profoundly intelligent and despondently suicidal.

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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