Guidance

Writer-director Pat Mills—once a child actor on Canadian TV—also stars in this dark comedy as David Gold, a former kid actor now fallen on hard times. Gold is a desperately closeted gay man who uses alcohol and drugs to dull the pain of his ruined career. Just after being told that he has advanced melanoma, Gold loses his only remaining gig—recording “daily affirmations” of the sort that Al Franken's Stuart Smalley used to recite on SNL—and his landlady threatens to evict him. Gold decides to study YouTube clips of guidance counselors in order to pass himself off as one, and despite his odd manner he manages to secure a job at a high school, where he earns the respect of some students by not only dispensing distinctly unconventional advice but also sometimes a few shots from his always-at-hand bottle of vodka—to provide courage to shy kids (or score some pot from the campus dealer). Naturally, Gold can't get away with this charade forever—especially after the gay gym teacher shows a dangerous interest in him—and he eventually winds up on a Bonnie-and-Clyde robbery spree with a student from an unhappy home. Guidance is sometimes positively scabrous, but it also serves up subversive fun, and Gold is a perversely fascinating character, constantly repeating his affirmations in order to bolster his confidence in the face of disasters that threaten to engulf him. Recommended. (F. Swietek)