The Emperor's Club

A teacher of classics at a boys' boarding school is dealing with a new student who does not follow the rules. The boy's father is a senator and the school does not want that relationship damaged. The film withholds the usual victory of the teacher drama; the narrative shows the teacher bending his own principles for the sake of a contest and calls him to account for it years later. The subject is not whether the boy changed but what the teacher did. Michael Hoffman directed, with Kevin Kline in the lead and Emile Hirsch and Jesse Eisenberg among the students. Who it's for: those who like quiet school drama and moral reckoning. Who it's not for: viewers expecting an inspirational teacher film; this one breaks that shape deliberately.