The Last Class

News junkies will know Robert Reich as a regular TV pundit and a former US Secretary for Labor in the Clinton administration. But his true vocation has always been teaching, at Harvard and Brandeis, among others. Elliot Kirschner’s film follows Reich’s last year at Berkeley before his retirement at 71, sitting in on his massively popular classes and hearing his thoughts and reflections as he reluctantly winds up another chapter in a life of public service. As an educator, he’s a charismatic and inspiring speaker, committed to fostering critical thinking and empowering his students with a sense of social responsibility and optimism (difficult as that may be in these times). In other words, he’s the embodiment of everything that the current US administration hates and is seeking to destroy. It’s clear that even in retirement, the fight goes on.

It’s heartening to hear a major figure in American political history talking about the future as if it might actually happen.

Matt Zoller Seitz, rogerebert.com

Somehow lighthearted and uplifting, despite the sobering subject matter.

Tobias Jeg, Exclaim!

Warm and often moving.

Andy Punter, InSession Film