Teaching Mrs. Tingle (PG-13)
IMDb; Miramax; Rotten Tomatoes; TV Tropes; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Amazon; Google Play; iTunes; Vudu; YouTube

This came out in 1999, and I have a vague feeling that I might have seen it on TV sometime in the early 2000s, but I also sort of doubt it. I'm writing this after watching it in 2021, and nothing about it rang any bells, beyond being aware of the basic premise. It did poorly both critically and at the box office, but I thought it was okay. Not great, but okay. It's supposed to be a black comedy, but I didn't see anything comedic about it. And as a thriller, it wasn't particularly thrilling. But I still felt the story and characters were at least a little bit compelling. It was written and directed by Kevin Williamson.

Leigh Ann Watson (Katie Holmes) is the second place student at her high school, but she wants to become valedictorian so she can get a scholarship, without which she has no chance of attending college. And that's super important to her, because she wants to be a writer. Her best friend, Jo Lynn Jordan, wants to become an actress, but she is fully committed to helping Leigh Ann achieve her dream. Unfortunately, Leigh Ann desperately needs to get an A in her history class, and her teacher, Mrs. Tingle (Helen Mirren) is basically a bitter, misanthropic ass who treats all her students like shit for no good reason, and this is reflected in the grades she gives them. Anyway, there's this boy named Luke Churner (Barry Watson), on whom Jo Lynn has a crush, but who is more interested in Leigh Ann, who dislikes him. One day near the end of the school year, he makes a copy of Mrs. Tingle's final exam, which he tries to share with the two girls, and puts it in Leigh Ann's backpack. Mrs. Tingle finds it, and blames Leigh Ann for cheating. That night, the three students go to their teacher's house to try to reason with her, but end up sort of inadvertently taking her hostage. Then they have to find a way to keep her from reporting them to the police, so they come up with a plan to blackmail her. Meanwhile, she plays mind games with all of them, especially Jo Lynn.

Look, I really didn't like Mrs. Tingle, and I felt bad for all three kids. So I was invested in the story, even when it was kind of ridiculous (which was pretty much the whole time). And I don't know what else to tell you.