Pigumim

I just saw SCAFFOLDING at a film festival and was shocked when I saw that its current score is 7.5. I simply cannot understand this because the film was very dull...so dull I considered leaving the theater. The main problem is that the main character, Asher, was unlikable and his behavior rarely made sense. Additionally, the film confused me as he was supposed to be a senior in high school...but the actor looked to be between 25 and 30.

The story is essentially a snippet of Asher's life. Asher is an Israeli malcontent who perennially seems angry, sullen and self- defeating. The film tried to go for a TO SIR, WITH LOVE vibe but with such a surly, unpredictable and messed up protagonist, it really never worked. Additionally, I seriously wonder what the writer was trying to say with this film...as the story seemed without meaning or significance. Overall, a misfire.

Building a framework for life! 17-year-old Asher from Israel is a typical problem student who is short-tempered and has great difficulty concentrating. His father has a scaffolding company and is doing everything he can to ensure that Asher can soon become his successor. Educational content just gets in the way! However, a dedicated teacher (Ami SMOLARTCHIK) manages to get Asher interested in literature and history. By studying ancient dramas and Chekhov's stories, Asher increasingly begins to ask himself and those closest to him questions. But then something unexpected happens...

Israeli director Matan YAIR took an unusual approach to his film. The actor Asher LAX essentially plays himself as the 17-year-old he once was. At the time of filming he was already visibly older than he was back then, which initially took a bit of getting used to, but the concept works. Little by little, the audience discovers the reasons for the protagonist's impetuous behavior in this quasi-documentary drama. It is so worth seeing and enlightening that the film was invited to one of the side rows at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017.

Recommended!

Like Arlo Guthrie in Alice's Restaurant, Asher Lax plays a character based somewhat on himself. A fellow who works for his father in the scaffolding business. There's cinematic potential there, and I wouldn't have minded coming out of the movie knowing a little about scaffolding, but that aspect is nowhere near thoroughly exploited. Nor is there a firm sense of place inside Israel. It seems that if a particular municipality isn't helping to fund the film, Israeli filmmakers are unaware of the advantage of making the location specific anyway. What we do get is the story of a young man with conflicting loyalties to two father figures-- the one he's intended to inherit the business from, who considers book learning superfluous to their lives, and his high-school English teacher, who wants to give him and his fellow low-scoring students a chance at intellectual development.

Asher's real-life teacher wrote and directed the movie, and maybe that's the reason it strays so little from the main characters into their surroundings or into the lives and personalities of supporting characters. In a TV interview, the teacher/writer/director pointed out that the teacher character is another person, like the Asher character, whose potential is unfulfilled and even unnoticed.

The Asher character is an unlikely protagonist, impatient and impulsive. It takes a while to wake up to the idea that this really is the fellow who's supposed to deserve the full measure of our attention, and even longer to warm to the idea. But the Asher actor performs at award level (one win, one major nomination) and he's supported by a top professional actor in the role of his father. The teacher is also played well, but the demands of the script make him an iceberg-- something that's mostly below the surface.

I imagine we haven't seen the last of Asher Lax the actor. Unlike his father in the movie, his real-life father says that if Asher wants to leave the scaffolding business, that's okay.

"Scaffolding" (2017 release from Israel) brings the story of Ashed Lax (played by... the real-life Asher Lax--more on that later), depicted in the movie as a high school kid who also works in his dad's scaffolding business on various construction sites. Asher gets into trouble at school due to his short temperament or pent-up anger, we're not sure. One of Asher's HS teachers, a guy named Remi, takes an interest in Asher and his misfit classmates. At this point we're not even 15 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: at the recent screening where I saw this, the movie was introduced by Galit Roichman, an Israeli film expert (and member of the Israeli Academy). She informed us that the movie's director Matan Yair used to be a HS teacher, and the script was inspired in part by his real-life student Asher Lax. When looking to cast the movie version of Asher Lax, Yair ended up casting the real life Asher Lax, even though he is now clearly much older. Roichman provided a ton of other interesting tidbits and I couldn't wait to see the film. And then... nothing. I kept waiting for a spark to ignite the movie, but it just didn't happen. There was no rhyme or reason for Asher's attitude and lashing out, and I never connected emotionally with any of the story or the characters. What a major disappointment this movie turned out to be!

I saw the movie recently as part of the 2018 Jewish & Israeli Film Festival here in Cincinnati. Apparently "Scaffolding" picked up a bunch of awards in Israel (and perhaps elsewhere), and it baffles me. I did not enjoy the movie, sadly. Viewer beware.

As teacher, I saw this film with interest. Because , chaotic at the first sigh, confuse and difficult to define as expected film, it is realistic, bitter and clear. And inspired. A young man between the expectation of his father, force of seduction of his teacher, angry and its forms of expression, not so rare to his age. And the decent performance of Asher Lax. When you live in the high school universe, the only critic about "Scaffolding" is its realism, remembering more a documentary. But the result is a beautiful one. Vocational education represents the answer for the older Asher Lax as high school student and d the manner to teach of his favorit teacher. So, a good film about an age, confusion defining it and the answers to near challenges.