The behavior behind female teachers sleeping with their male students is perversely fascinating.  As a society, it creates a gender divide where some people feel openly comfortable being impressed with an abuse of power.  But no one wants to acknowledge the emotions that would arise from the actual affair.  We’re always looking at it from after the news breaks.  Hannah Fidell‘s A Teacher takes us to the other side where we look at the intimacy between the teacher and her student.  Never judgmental and oddly compassionate, Fidell never sensationalizes the relationship, but she also seems at a loss on how to develop the film’s conflict.  Eventually, the direction feels like it’s overcompensating for a redundant narrative where we may be seeing the untold story, but there’s no compelling drama in the telling.

We’ve got a few new posters to share this afternoon.  Briefly:

• Mud – The first poster for director Jeff Nichols’ excellent follow-up to Take Shelter highlight’s Matthew McConaughey’s titular character front and center.  Read Matt’s review from Sundance here.  The film opens in limited release on April 26th.
• A Teacher – Another poster debut for a Sundance film.  The story centers on a high school teacher in Austin who has an affair with one of her students.
• G.I. Joe Retaliation – A couple of recruitment propaganda posters for the upcoming sequel pose a serious question.  The film opens on March 29th.
• The Call – A debut poster for this thriller that stars Halle Berry as an emergency operator who takes things into her own hands when a repeat offender kidnaps a young girl (Abigail Breslin).  The film opens on March 15th.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.

Earlier this month, we reported on the first wave of SXSW 2013 films, which includes The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and Evil Dead.  Today, the full line-up has been announced, and it feels like Sundance all over again when it comes to plenty of unknown films.  The chance of discovering a gem is high, and I look forward to hearing the buzz that arises from some these movies.  There’s also a second chance at festival films I missed like The Act of Killing (from TIFF) and Pit Stop (from Sundance).  I thought Toy’s House would make it in to SXSW, but I’ll see it eventually since it picked up distribution.

Hit the jump for the full line-up.  The 2013 SXSW Film Festival runs from March 8 – 17th.