Like the teaching profession, Chalk is at times tedious and rewarding.

Chalk is a message from the horse’s mouth, and is thereby humorously instructive without ever becoming sarcastic or judgmental.

Can we all come to a consensus that the whole mockumentary concept is played out?

The indie film is funny and, at times, heartbreaking. Wisely, it avoids the happy ending that Hollywood would have insisted upon.

An unassuming indie comedy that just happens to be terrific, Mike Akel's deceptively modest debut is, unfortunately, as likely to go unrewarded as the thousands of teachers who do a great job with little acknowledgment.

Might not be the high-school story most of us want to hear, but it's a true one, and Chalk tells it with insight, humor, and an appropriate touch of sadness.

Its honest storytelling and painfully funny moments make up for the thrown-together feel.

Chalk was actually shot in a loose, improvisational manner modeled after the films of Christopher Guest, and its best set-pieces are like devastatingly effective pin pricks at the Hollywood hot-air balloon of inspirational teacher/coach melodramas.

Chalk mines nervous laughter from the gulf between teacher and student culture, and the contrast between how its simultaneously self-conscious and oblivious teachers see themselves, and how the rest of the world sees them.