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Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: This is one of the screen's most rewarding explorations of the teacher/student relationship in any language. Every voice we hear makes sense; every opinion means something. Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The Class is a true movie miracle: fragile yet indelible. Read more
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Since the subject of The Class is education, let's begin by giving it the grade it deserves: A+, with extra credit for no neatness. Read more
John Hartl, Seattle Times: Cantet has created a deceptively simple film that gradually deconstructs a Hollywood genre. Read more
Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: But ultimately it's a fascinating, sometimes exhilarating movie that seems to make a genuine contact with the classroom, and shows us an educational system struggling, and managing, to survive. Read more
Scott Tobias, AV Club: The beauty of The Class is that it puts the lie to the one-teacher-can-make-a-difference myth propagated by so many other films. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Laurent Cantet's drama The Class brings us back to earth, unalloyed. Read more
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The power of The Class will sneak up on you. Read more
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Most impressive, Cantet tracks the racial and ethnic resentments that simmer beneath the classroom discussions but become harder to quell when the parents get involved. Read more
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: By rough estimate, maybe 80 percent of the movie consists of these student-teacher slanging matches, but it's engrossing. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Wherever you were schooled, in public schools or private, in the slums or in the suburbs, you will recognize yourself in this film and laugh and beam and cower. Read more
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: These kids aren't always all right. But they are consistently riveting. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: The fact that it's based on a book written by a former teacher who also stars in the film gives it more than a bit of authenticity Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The Class -- winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival -- is in a class by itself. Read more
Mario Tarradell, Dallas Morning News: Never feels scripted, even with so much talking. Read more
Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: The drama unfolds with the pace and tone of a nature show. Like watching exotic cats hunt unattractive prey, you're on neither team's side -- at least, not for long. Read more
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: For anyone who loves language, this cut-and-thrust is a heady delight, so rich and free-flowing in its rhythms that it's hard to decide whether what we're seeing is a verite-style documentary or a realist drama. Read more
Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: The Class skillfully straddles an intriguing line between reality and fiction. Read more
Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Powerful, mesmerizing and full of moments that linger long after the bell rings. Read more
Jennie Yabroff, Newsweek: The Class isn't a documentary, but the scenes have the loose, slow-cooked feel of a director turning on a camera and waiting to see what happens -- think Mike Leigh meets Frederick Wiseman. Read more
David Denby, New Yorker: The Class is a prime document of French post-colonial blues, though its relevance to American urban education could not be any greater if it had been made in the Bronx or Trenton or South Los Angeles. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Bracingly realistic. Read more
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: This documentary-style look at a year in a French middle school is certainly ambitious and ultimately delivers after a pretty tedious first hour. Read more
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Place The Class on your must-see list and keep it there until you do. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The Class, an Oscar-nominated French film about a Paris middle school, should be required viewing for anybody considering a career in teaching. Read more
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: The effect of this sobering, funny and, finally, enlightening, portrait is one of enormous sympathy for all parties in the education tango. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Those looking for answers to many of the most pressing junior high student/teacher issues won't find them here. What they will discover is a well-dramatized list of many of the most vexing questions. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie is bursting with life, energy, fears, frustrations and the quick laughter of a classroom hungry for relief. Read more
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Laurent Cantet's scrappy mesmerizer of a movie about a life in learning sneaks up and floors you. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: A lovely, exhilarating work about the ways in which failure and frustration can open the pathways through which we make sense out of life. Read more
Dana Stevens, Slate: You walk out of the theater feeling unsettled, curious, and passionate to talk -- as if you just spent two hours in the best class you ever took. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: With an improvisational cinema-verite style and untrained student actors playing the kids, Cantet's quasi-documentary captures the dynamics of one suburban school and the multicultural learning curve that all of Europe is on today. Read more
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Arguably the finest film ever made about education. And within the context of a changing world, it is timely, too. Read more
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The Class is simultaneously old school and new, familiar in its themes but unique in design and, at its best, riveting in execution. Read more
Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: The drama of The Class is organic, rising from the hundreds of daily exchanges in a schoolroom...The lessons you take away will be purely personal. Read more
David Fear, Time Out: During the second half's institutional breakdown, the movie truly comes alive, casting off any To Monsieur, with Love aspirations and turning into something much more complicated, chewy and real. Read more
Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Cantet's Palme d'Or winner is a marvel, its authenticity deriving both from the superb performances of its non-professional cast and from a screenplay co-written by Begaudeau. Read more
Justin Chang, Variety: Talky in the best sense, the film exhilarates with its lively, authentic classroom banter while its emotional undercurrents build steadily but almost imperceptibly over a swift 129 minutes. Read more
John Anderson, Washington Post: The Class is not just the best film released thus far this year. It may be the most gripping. Read more