La tutora

Homophobia, mental illness, sexual precociousness, vigilantism, child sex abuse, betrayal, paranormal phenomena, and revenge: all of this swirls together in Ivan Noel's philosophical horror film The Tutor. The end result, disturbing to most of us on multiple levels, is both highly entertaining and thought-provoking.

Mona is hired, she thinks, to educate Angel and Ema, 11-year-old orphaned brother and sister whom she soon discovers live well beyond "free range." Whether some events are real or paranormal or hallucinatory is unclear at times. And that, it turns out, is as intended. What is actually going on is indicated by several hints quite early, but as sometimes happens, the most definitive clue was too subtly presented (for me) and I only learned about it in the "Making Of" special feature on the Alive DVD. But in the end, it all makes sense.

How intense is this film? After watching it, and especially the ending, I was glad to have the "Making Of" available, to remind myself that the actors are not the characters. Running with that idea also allows me to tell myself that rather than a proffered path forward, The Tutor instead represents Ivan Noel's primal scream of pain, dedicated to all victims of moral extremism.

Where "extremism" begins is a debate that will long endure. Meanwhile, here is an interesting movie, well worth watching.