There’s no class and no pass

his high school diploma.

So, along with a bunch of other mature-age students, Teddy attends night school at his former high school, where, allegedly, hilarity ensues.

The comedy is the lowest of lowest common denominator humour. Fart jokes and random silliness are great, but they still need to be delivered with some kind of awareness of structure and timing. Here they’re just lobbed in arbitrarily, usually at times when they simply don’t work, in the hopes that a quick cheap laugh will trick the audience into thinking they’re watching something funny.

The on-screen portrayal of what it is like to live with dyslexia is kinda clever, and they were clearly trying to fulfil some kind of social awareness ambition with that plot line. But everything about the way the story addresses people with learning difficulties is quite simply offensive, which might be funny on screen but undermines any good work they might have been trying to do.

All the night schoolers are portrayed variously as weirdos, losers and thugs, Teddy’s confusion is played exclusively for laughs rather than sympathy, and the way his condition is “cured” is utterly bizarre. And I’m not sure people living with dyslexia would appreciate the disorder being called “learnin’ herpes”. A swing and miss, guys. And to top off almost two hours of the least funny movie since Schindler’s List, it finishes with a dance-off.

Just don’t. Night School (M) is now showing at Village Cinemas. Rating: BOMB