Stylish but barely mediocre overall

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

We find many British films to be layered and realistic with humor woven in. This does not disappoint! The boys are fun and trying to find their way into Cambridge. They are accepting of each other without bullying which is refreshing. Most of the boys went on to act in blockbusters like Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and Harry Potter series...fun to see them so young here. Just a nice way to spend a couple of hours enjoying a great movie from the U.K.

The History Boys had inspiring goals in their lives, which they were intensely dedicated to achieving. The role models that was involved in their lives had an impacting effect on each of their lives, both good and bad. I think this movie does it's part in carrying out life's encounters, though some might be expected and some unexpected, whatever the situation might be, it enables us to grow as a person and helps us develop into stronger minded people, who can deal with anything life throws at them. Morals were taught in this movie which made it a good movie, but not a recommended movie for children younger than 15 years, as it requires an audience that's mentally mature, to understand what happens in the movie and why it happens.

It's 1983 Yorkshire. A group of smart boys at Cutlers' Grammar School are being prepared by their eager headmaster to go to Oxford or Cambridge. He brings in new teacher Irwin to achieve that goal. Irwin teaches them to think the opposite and game the exam system. History teacher Mrs Lintott is more traditional. Friendly enthusiastic teacher Hector don't teach to exams and is pushed by the headmaster for early retirement after some homosexual tendencies with one of the boys. David Posner is a Jewish student struggling with his own homosexuality. Stuart Dakin is the hot guy that he pines for.It's very British and I find the whole world a little odd. The class work is different. The guys are not chasing girls and that has nothing to do with the homosexuality. Hector is the flashy character but I actually find Irwin the more compelling character. Posner is the star character among the kids but Samuel Barnett is not that charismatic. This material is great but some of the humor eludes me.

The good things: the acting is top notch, and it's vaguely interestingThe rest of it: I just don't know where to start...The obvious thing is the bizarre celebration of sexual abuse of school children which the film romanticises and tries to pass off as normal and an in-joke amongst teachers and children.Beyond this, the entire thing is unbelievable fabrication of an alternative reality that is some kind of homosexual- liberal-pseudo-intellectual fantasy. No 18 yo boys talk like that anywhere in the world, not even in the 80s. They talk back and forth as if in a Shakespeare play, and spontaneously break in to song and drama routines in the middle of lesson. They also seem to idolise the massively overweight sweaty, lecherous old teacher who molests them on his motorbike, when in reality the boys would ridicule him and try to give him a nervous breakdown. Every relationship in this film is unbelievable: the boys love the old sweaty pervert, but initially seem to hate the new teacher who is nice, talks to them in a relatively normal way, and actually teaches them proper interesting lessons. The teachers seem to have no problem with hanging out with the students, smoking, and hiding from the headteacher, and the boys treat the staff in a similar way, at one point asking his teacher to 'suck him off', and not in a cheeky way, but as a genuine request.The thing that really got to me was that despite these students acting like literature Dons from the 16th century, Bennett has throne in bizarre tokenistic 'these are working class, uneducated boys' moments. First off, these boys already act like Oxbridge graduates, so the idea that they are struggling against their social situation to get in to Oxbridge is preposterous. Secondly, despite being to quote and explain the works of many literary figures off the top of their heads, and have spontaneous complex debates on the fine details of every historical event, we are expected to believe that they've never heard of Nietzsche or Jean Paul Sartre. They also just suddenly act 'dumb working class' for a few seconds when required to labour a point.I can't be bothered to write anymore, but I could go on.