'The Penguin Lessons' Teach Timely Truths in the Face of Fascism

Sony Pictures Classics’ The Penguin Lessons is an adaptation of Tom Michell’s 2016 memoir of the same name about his teaching career in Buenos Aires in 1976 and how his unexpected adoption of a wild penguin changed his life and the lives of the students and teachers around him. Comedian and actor Steve Coogan (...with Alan Patridge) plays Michell, as directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty). Although the film starts as awkwardly and unfocused as a penguin tromping across the asphalt, by the film’s halfway mark, the story and themes finally kick in, and everyone involved manages to achieve a rather meaningful story about the necessity of connection, courage, and care in the face of fascism.

As warned, be prepared for a wrong flipper forward opening, featuring an oddly jaunty score by composer Federico Jusid (A Gentleman in Moscow) playing over stock footage of life in Buenos Aires, Argentina, right before General Jorge Videla’s military coup in 1976. Tonally, it’s off because the filmmakers don’t do enough to establish the context of that calm before the storm, either with historical title cards or exposition to set up the imminent coup for those who aren’t up on their South American history. It just drops Coogan’s professor Michell at the gates of St. George’s College for boys with a face full of concern.

As a traveling British professor, Michell’s current gig is with this private school for wealthy families, situated in the city's suburbs where bombings can be seen in the distance, and fresh graffiti dries on the school’s exterior wall. Inside is a protected nook of academia for the nation’s future leaders (Socialist or Junta) run by a fastidious and politically agnostic British Headmaster Buckle (Jonathan Pryce).