Chalk: Those who can't ...

On the old prank TV series "Candid Camera" — the "Punk'd" of its day — host Allen Funt called his victims "people caught in the act of being themselves." The idea of cameras capturing people in embarrassing or inappropriate moments may explain the proliferation of "mockumentary" comedy. The handheld cameras seem to show characters caught off guard, even when they're completely fictitious.

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The faux documentary has become so commonplace and accepted, it's looking less and less like the real thing. Director Christopher Guest has made a comedic career out of films such as Best in Show, but they frequently contain scenes that actual documentarians could never catch. And it's hard to believe that any film crew would follow the minutia of a failing paper company for years, like they do on various countries' versions of "The Office."

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The modest comedy Chalk, about four educators' perspectives on a school year, at least looks like the kind of lo-fi, earnest, nonfiction film you could find on the film-festival circuit, even down to the "contemplative" instrumental rock score. Director Mike Akel and most of his cast come from education backgrounds, and earn Chalk high marks for both laughs and plausibility, even though the film suffers from a lack of ambition.

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Three of Chalk's protagonists are teachers at a small high school (filmed in Texas). Halting, tentative Mr. Lowrey (Troy Schremmer) has just entered the field, having taken career aptitude tests that recommended either teaching "or veterinary medicine." Coach Webb (Janelle Schremmer, Troy's wife) likes to point out that despite being a gym teacher with short hair, she's not gay. Mr. Stroope (co-writer Chris Mass) proves more motivated by winning popularity and the Teacher of the Year Award than actually teaching. Plus, former teacher Mrs. Reddell (Shannon Haragan) becomes an assistant principal and practically works around the clock.

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Chalk makes a bracingly sharp contrast to the usual Teacher Who Makes A Difference drama such as Mr. Holland's Opus. Coach Webb obsesses over the tardiness policy like any workplace disciplinarian. Lowrey's students practically eat him for breakfast thanks to his amusingly awful interpersonal skills. If students often equate school with prison, the teachers might be serving life sentences.

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Akel and Mass' script featured no written dialogue (à la "Curb Your Enthusiasm"), although Mr. Stroope comes across the most like a "written" character. He's not unconvincing, but his scenes frequently build to the film's most obvious punch lines involving his misplaced confidence in his leadership and likability. In one funny moment, he tells his best students after class to stop making him look bad, just because they know more than he does.

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Akel effectively used the recurring, talking-head interview style, a convention favored by mockumentaries, probably because it emulates first-person narrative. It's easy to mistake the characters for real people, particularly Janelle Schremmer's lovelorn yet abrasive phys ed teacher, whose enthusiasms and disappointments generate enormous sympathy. Chalk amusingly upends the clichés of inspirational movies at a climactic spelling bee, in which the teachers try to show their command of their students' slang words.

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Chalk communicates the teachers' conflicts and character traits so quickly, the dramatic arcs feel shorter than necessary. Despite their command of the subject, the filmmakers show little interest in exposing the institutional problems of education, powerfully explored on "The Wire." Chalk opens with the statistic that 50 percent of teachers quit in the first three years, and portrays the profession as drab and unrewarding without exploring the complexities of the job.

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The film isn't above droll little gags, such as coach Webb shouting, "Lead with your glutes!" in a classroom exercise, but mostly takes its subject seriously. Akel and company seem so motivated by realism that by Chalk's end, you wonder if they should have made an actual documentary instead of a phony one. Filmed in the real world, a bona fide Chalk would have been a more educational experience, though probably not as funny.